ipl? 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 7 



of fruit is generally borne on them. 

 The trees should be so managed, there- 

 fore, that the spurs are well distrib- 

 uted throughout the entire tree, and 

 afforded the best condition for pro- 

 ducing prime fruit. On the other hand, 

 many varieties while young, particu- 

 larly those that come into bearing at 

 any early age, produce a very large 

 proportion of the first few crops from 

 terminals and axillaries. For such va- 

 rieties a method of pruning which 

 will tend to conserve and encourage 

 as many as possible of these fruit buds 

 should be adopted. As the trees grow 

 older, and fruit spurs are developed 

 and an increasingly greater propor- 

 tion of the fruit is so borne, the 

 method of pruning should be modi- 

 fied in such a way as to encourage 

 more fruit spurs, to maintain those 

 present in good condition and also to 

 provide some new shoots bearing axil- 

 lary and terminal buds. Of course it 

 is realized that some growers are con- 

 fronted with the tendency of their 

 trees to over bear, to produce fruit at 

 the expense of shoot production. Such 

 a state of affairs is really an exception 

 to conditions generally encountered 

 and special practices, largely cultural 

 rather than pruing, would have to be 

 employed for handling such trees. It 

 is a more difficult task to counteract 

 the habit to over bear due to pecu- 

 liarly local environment than to man- 

 age the average trees which fail to 

 bear, unless circumstances are ex- 

 tremely unusual. 



Briefly then, determine the type of 

 production of the variety as limited 

 by the conditions under consideration 

 and adopt such methods as best apply 



to it. One of the first pruning prin- 

 ciples to be learned is the difference 

 in effect of heading back and thin- 

 ning out the top. It may be regarded 

 as virtually a universal rule that under 

 like conditions a liberal heading back 

 tends to produce vegetative shoots and 

 thicken the top at the expense of fruit 

 bud formation, both because of exces- 

 sive vegetative stimulation and a shad- 

 ing out due to an increased size and 

 number of branches, while thinning 

 out with no heading back means a 

 generous number of fruit buds, a less- 

 ened vegetative response and a pos- 

 sible sacrifice of tree form. It would 

 be easy to take a hypothetical case and 

 compute the number of shoots and 

 fruit buds resulting from the two 

 methods of pruning, but it is suf- 

 ficient to say that the result would 

 substantiate the foregoing statement. 

 Knowing the effects of these two prac- 

 tices, the successful grower will com- 

 bine the two for best success. In 

 other words, neither method is the 

 better, except that when trees have 

 been neglected or pruned wholly ac- 

 cording to one system or the other, as 

 many orchards have been, it is fre- 

 quently an advantage to completely re- 

 verse the method for a year or two 

 and thereafter follow both. 



The fruit grower is frequently con- 

 fronted with the condition, where ap- 

 parently, either he must sacrifice form 

 or fruit production, as for example 

 young trees which have set a number 

 of fruit buds towards the tips of long 

 branches, or which probably would 

 develop fruit buds on branches left 

 uncut. It will be found that instead 

 of treating all branches on the trees 



alike and pruning to the best possible 

 form, judged from the standpoint of 

 beauty only, the tree would be more 

 profitable and of exactly as good form 

 eventually if some of the supernu- 

 merary branches were not removed 

 and either headed back very lightly or 

 not at all; this to be done during the 

 winter. It is the general experience 

 that such uncut branches will go into 

 the fruiting condition, especially if 

 well exposed to light and air, sooner 

 than those cut heavily. They may be 

 removed later when the remainder of 

 the tree begins to fruit. The advan- 

 tages of such a system are at least two- 

 fold: first, the truit which is har- 

 vested from the branches and second, 

 the tree as a whole receives a lighter 

 pruning and goes into the fruiting con- 

 dition more quickly than if severe 

 pruning'is continued. Its disadvan- 

 tages lie mostly in the fact that the 

 pruner has difficulty in keeping the 

 final form of his tree in mind unless 

 entirely cut over; that the tree may be 

 a bit unsightly; that there is a ten- 

 dency to allow the tree to become too 

 thick, and a hesitancy to remove the 

 unpruned branches after the tree as a 

 whole has come into bearing. The 

 practice is better adapted to slender 

 or open growing varieties such as 

 Spitzenburg, Ortley, or Jonathan, than 

 to the denser growing varieties as 

 Newtown or Arkansas Black. It is 

 worthy of trial on pears, but due to 

 the very upright tendency of some va- 

 rieties, it might be difficult to man- 

 age them. 



Another way of inducing and main- 

 taining a good fruit spur system is 

 through summer pruning. There are 



A view of the- portable carrier in tin- precooling rooms. You will note that tin- carrier is handling packed boxes of oranges traveling in the 



direction Of ears for shipment. The temperature in this room is 38°. 



Gravity carrier systems have been used extensively throughout the Fast by large manufacturers for handling packages, 

 and also by the citrus fruit growers of California. On account of the efficiency and economy in the use of the system it 

 is going to be a great saving to all of the large apple packing houses in the Northwest, as well as all of the shipping con- 

 cerns. Every concern handling box apples in quantity should investigate the carrier system if they want to do their 

 business more economically and more efficiently. 



