Page 10 



BETTER FRUIT 



October 



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< BATHROOM^ 

 <T lAMDRY.*? 



CDAIRYHOUSEA 

 < CABACE.^ 

 f BARN.^kA 

 : SPRINKLING.! 



120 ORANGE ST. 



ASHLAND, 

 OHIO 



dry forms of summer pruning; one or 

 two others will be mentioned later. 



There are several precautions to be 

 observed in this method. First, there 

 is a tendency to leave the branches 

 too long with the result that the in- 

 tervals between sets of branches are 

 too great and unproductive of either 

 fruit or branch buds. In the second 

 place there is a tendency for vigorous 

 trees to become too dense and there- 

 fore there should be a generous thin- 

 ning out of extra branches at the time 

 of winter pruning or in many in- 

 stances preferably during the summer 

 so as to permit plenty of light into the 

 interior of the tree. In the third place, 

 not all trees respond alike to the treat- 

 ment, and the pruner must judge of 

 the vigor of the tree and cut accord- 

 ingly. The rule to be observed is, 

 consider the tree as a whole, then the 

 more vigorous the tree the greater will 

 be the response to the heading back; 

 or to restate the idea, in general of 

 two trees of equal vigor, the one cut 

 back the more severely gives the 

 greater response. Very weak trees 

 must be headed back severely to ob- 

 tain any response whatsoever; and at 

 best the method cannot be considered 

 more than partially successful on 

 them. 



Two other methods of summer 

 pruning have been so generally recom- 

 mended that they should be mentioned 

 in this connection. The first one con- 

 sists of thinning out, the other of a 

 heading, clipping, or pinching back of 

 the terminals in late summer. A few 

 observations and brief experience only 

 can be given in regard to these 

 methods. 



It is claimed that thinning out dur- 

 ing the summer offers several advan- 

 tages, among them that it does away 

 with the necessity for any heavy win- 



ter pruning, that it admits light and 

 air to the interior of the tree, result- 

 ing in an increased number of fruit 

 huils. thai it is an easy method of 

 shaping the tree since it is in full leaf 

 and its form is definite, that it tends 

 to make the remaining branches more 

 stocky, and that it serves as a check 

 to excessive vegetative vigor. There 

 arc some grains of fact and truth in 

 the claims and there can be no question 

 that trees rationally handled accord- 

 ing to this method show sufficient ad- 

 vantages over those not so treated that 

 the practice may be recommended. 

 Again variety bearing habit, whether 

 on axillaries or spurs, must be taken 

 into consideration and while one may 

 be benefited to a great degree, another 

 may fail to respond favorably. On 

 the other hand, observation shows that 

 it is easily possible to carry this prac- 

 tice to an excess, and make it a seri- 

 ously devitalizing process. Perhaps all 

 have seen young trees that have been 

 heavily thinned several times dur- 

 ing the season, or even for several suc- 

 cessive seasons. Usually they appear 

 more compressed and upright, the 

 branches and scaffolds small in diam- 

 eter and with peculiar narrow angles 

 and crotches. The whole impression 

 of the tree is one of lack of vigor when 

 compared with unpruned trees. There 

 is nothing to commend such excessive 

 thinning. To admit light to the in- 

 terior of the tree and thereby aid in 

 the developing and strengthening of 

 the fruit buds is good sense, to carry 

 the idea to an extreme is not. 



Concerning the value of the second 

 widely practiced method of summer 

 pruning, topping back in late summer, 

 little can be said from direct observa- 

 tion of a wide series of trials. Sev- 

 eral advantages are claimed; namely, 

 that it aids in the elimination of heavy 

 winter pruning, that the branches so 

 pinched increase in diameter propor- 

 tionally greater than those unpruned, 

 that it induces fruitfulness at an earl- 

 ier age. These claims are in part sub- 

 stantiated by the meager information 

 at hand. There are several disadvan- 

 tages. In the first place if slight cut- 

 ting or light pinching is done near the 

 tip of the shoot, say in August before 

 growth ceases, either small branches 

 are pushed out so close together that 

 they form "crow's nests," or the shoot 

 is left very long; both of which con- 

 ditions must be corrected by the regu- 

 lar winter pruning to avoid a poorly 

 formed tree. If, as often recom- 

 mended, the pruning of vigorous 

 shoots is delayed until the terminal 

 bud is set, then new difficulties arise; 

 first, if the pruning is heavy new 

 growth is induced which is very weak 

 and is apt to be winter injured, or sec- 

 ond, if the cutting is light, virtually no 

 response is obtained and the usual 

 winter pruning must be given to pre- 

 serve desirable form. There is an in- 

 crease in the diameter of the shoot, 

 often accompanied by an increase of 

 tissue about the buds. In some in- 

 stances apparently there has been an 

 increase of fruit buds, a condition 

 largely explainable as an indirect ef- 



Staitdarti Sprays 

 ofttie^WforJd 



feet of summer pruning, in that the 

 winter pruning in such instances is 

 usually a thinning out rather than a 

 heading back. Without further data, 

 however, it is not safe to conclude 

 that there is no direct effect on the 

 buds, perhaps through an added stor- 

 age of food materials in the shoots 

 themselves, indicated by increased di- 

 ameter and swelling about the buds. 

 In any case such late summer pruning 

 or pinching does not show a direct ef- 

 fect the following spring or summer 

 insofar as fruiting is concerned, but 

 rather the second season thereafter. 

 That is to say, if the pruning were 

 done in August or September, 1915, its 

 effects, if any, in actual fruit or blos- 

 som production would be apparent in 

 1917 or 1918, rather than 1916, since 

 during the summer of 1916 the influ- 

 ence of the 1915 pruning would be 

 brought to bear in the production of 

 fruit buds. It is equally possible that 

 there would be little or no noticeable 

 effect of the cutting. It remains to be 

 shown whether or not the system actu- 

 ally serves as a check to vigor. 



In the discussion of these several 

 systems of summer pruning, they have 

 been recommended from the view- 

 point of similar environmental condi- 

 tions. Much of the conflicting opinion 

 regarding the possibility or manner of 

 influencing the fruit buds through 

 pruning methods has arisen because 

 men have applied different methods, 

 or similar methods under widely dif- 

 ferent environments. There can be 

 no doubt that there are some advan- 

 tages in all of them. The main idea 

 must be to avoid becoming an extrem- 

 ist. If winter pruning has not been a 

 success, try combining with it rational 

 summer pruning, an increase or de- 

 crease of tillage, an inter-crop or 

 shade crop, fertilization, irrigation, or 

 all of them. Above everything else, 

 become familiar with the bearing 

 habit of the variety being grown; make 

 a careful study of how the fruit buds 

 are distributed, the proportions of 

 crop borne on spurs, axillaries and 

 terminals, and note the adjustment of 

 the variety to specific treatment and 

 to local environment. 



