Pase 8 



BETTER FRUIT 



November 



FiGlHi: 2'J — liaiaiu-e in i>iiininj5. Note at .4.1 e(iiial L-iittiiif^ lias rcMiltrd in 



nearly equal sti'en^th of branches; at BB unetiual cutting has resulted in 



completely destroying such balance, making a stronger crotch. 



Cut the strongest branch the hard- 

 est; cut tlie second l)rancli in vigor not 

 quite so much; tlie ttiird in vigor still 

 less, until you come to the weakest 

 branch, which should be cut the least. 

 It is only by suppressing the strong 

 branches, limiting the number of leaves 

 and buds that they have, that you can 

 possibly hope to encourage the weaker 

 branches. If you wish to grow a modi- 

 fled tree, or leader-tyije tree, the only 

 difTerence we would make in this 

 pruning would be that we shoulil 

 choose one branch for a leader and not 

 cut it back quite so heavily as we 

 should with the open tree, simply let- 

 ting it have enough of a lead to main- 

 tain that position. Other than that we 

 should prune all the branches the same 

 as directed. We can do a great deal 

 of so-called corrective pruning. That 

 is, we may have a tree four or five 

 years old and notice that two of the 

 scaffold branches are weaker than the 

 rest of the tree, consciiucntly we woulil 

 like to encourage these two branches to 

 grow stronger and larger. To do this, 

 prune these two very lightly and prune 

 the other parts of the tree more heavily, 

 and thus encourage the two weaker 

 branches. 



Lesson 3. To Avoid the Sharp- 

 Angled, Equally-Balanced Crotches. — 

 If we examine the average scafTold 

 branch of a tree carefully, from the 

 time it leaves the main trunk up to its 

 last year's growth, we shall observe 

 that it has been developed much along 

 this order. The first year the branch 

 was cut back it forced out a number 

 of laterals. All the laterals excejit two 

 were removed. These two were cut 

 equally and in most cases were not 

 spaced very far apart. The next year 

 on each one of these two the same 

 treatment was repeated. Two branches 

 were chosen and these were cut 

 equallx . The result is that the branches 

 all liver the tree are in pairs, of equal 

 strength, and form very sharp forks. 

 Now, this makes a weak branch, one 

 which will break very easily, as the 

 stress and strain all come at very 

 critical jjoints. namely, at the numerous 

 balanced crotches. To avoid this con- 

 ditiiin of a tree, treat eacii one of your 

 main branches as a leader. This means 

 that when you choose two branches, 

 at the first you will choose them as far 

 apart as you possibly can, and, second, 

 in iiruning these you will cut one 

 hai'iler than the other. Thus one will 



become a leader and the other a side 

 branch. If you continue this, the whole 

 branch becomes a strong leader, with 

 a great many side branches, which dis- 

 tribute the strain in such a way as to 

 reduce the breakage to a minimum. 



Classes of Non-Bearing Trees 



For convenience of discussion, we 

 may divide the young or non-bearing 

 trees into three classes: First, those 

 trees from one to four years of age. 

 This is the formative period, the body- 

 building period of the young tree. 

 -Second, the period from four to seven 

 years of age. I have called this the 

 critical age. It is a transition period 

 from the body-building, on the one 

 hand, to the heavy-fruiting on the 

 other. With Yellow Xewtowns, Bald- 

 wins, Winter Nelis, Comice, and many 

 others we could mention, the pruning 

 at this time will determine to a very 

 large degree the fruitfulness of the 

 trees for a number of years to come. 

 The third class or group of trees are 

 those from seven to twelve years of 

 age, which have reached the bearing 

 age, but as yet have not borne a com- 

 mercial crop. Before taking up the 

 details of pruning these three classes 

 of trees, summer i)runing and its rela- 

 tion to such trees may be considered. 



Summer Pruning as Adapted to Young 

 Non-Bearing Trees 



During the past two years we have 

 heard much about summer pruning, 

 and with many summer pruning has 

 become a fad, and some expect mar- 

 velous results. While summer prun- 

 ing is not new, it is true, however, that 

 it has been more generally used the 

 past few years than formerly, and like 

 everything that is .just coming into gen- 

 eral practice, is being overdone. Many 

 people are expecting too much from 

 summer pruning. 



Let us consider first the summer 

 pruning for our young trees during the 

 formative period, that being the ages 

 from one to four. In many cases not 

 much pruning will be done during the 

 first summer of the tree's life, as the 

 trees often do not make very much 

 growth the first season, but where 

 they do make a vigorous growth and 

 make it by the middle of .lune or early 

 July it will often be found to advantage 

 to head the trees at that time, cutting 

 them back just about the same way that 

 you would cut them back the following 

 spring. That is, if you have a long 

 terminal growth, 12 to 30 inches in 

 length, cut it back to the point where 

 you desire to force out new laterals for 

 the future body building of the tree. 

 Now, you may have a tree that is run- 

 ning to one or two branches at the 

 expense of all the others. It would 

 be well to pinch back these strong 

 branches so as to hold them back for 

 the time being and thus encourage the 

 weaker branches to grow. By the sec- 

 ond year nearly all these trees can be 

 greatly benefiled by summer pruning. 

 This may come any time from the lat- 

 ter part of May up to the middle of 

 .July, generally about the middle of 

 .hine. It consists of cutting back the 



