Summer Meeting. 105' 



'is 



forks the side nearest the south should be left in order to throw more 

 of the weight of the tree top toward the sun. The young orchard should 

 be gone over every winter for this sort of shaping until the trees reach 

 bearing age. If the trees are thus properly shaped they will need but 

 little pruning after they come into bearing. 



Having secured a straight central leader it is desirable that all 

 other limbs be equally distributed as side limbs. Then the tree will be 

 symmetrical and will not "split. If limbs cross and injure each other by 

 rubbing, one should be removed or shortened below the point of crossing. 

 The cutting back and thinning of young branches may be done more 

 freely on the north or east sides of the tree than on the sunny side. All 

 possible limbs should usually be left on the sunny side of the tree to pro- 

 tect the trunk and main limbs from sunscald. In fact it is sometimes 

 better to allow two southern limbs to rub and injure each other than to 

 remove one of them, if its removal is liable to leave the south side of the 

 trunk exposed to too much sunlight. In the west, dense heads are pref- 

 erable for the same reason that low heads are — to protect the trunk and 

 n.iain limbs from our intense sunlight. Even though the heads may seem 

 too dense for the first five or six years, as soon as the trees come into bear- 

 ing the limbs fruit, thus opening up the tree so that too much sunlight 

 may fall on the trunk and on the bending limbs. 



While the grower should carefully go over his orchard to shape the 

 young trees every winter until the trees reach bearing age, it must not 

 be decided that every tree will need pruning. In fact it often happens: 

 that a tree makes a correct, symmetrical growth and needs no pruning in 

 a given winter. In such cases it is folly to prune it just because the 

 orchard is being pruned. Most growers who prune, prune too much. 

 Our need of dense heads renders comparatively little pruning sufficient 

 for the apple, but this little should be all the more conscientiously done. 

 Much of the injury to our orchards is due to the fact that a tree is neg- 

 lected just at a time when the removal of a single small twig would have 

 corrected an error that eventually leads to the breaking down of the tree 

 or to the removal of a large limb. Prune as is necessary while the trees- 

 are young and the removal of large limbs will be avoided later. 



West. Fruit Grower. 



LOW HEADED APPLE TREES. 



(By Prof. Arthur T. Erwin — Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa.) 



One important lesson gained from the past is that, at least for the 

 northwest, low-headed trees are very much better than the old-time "sky- 

 scrapers." 



