156 



NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The third and fourth seasons' pruning should aid in retaining the 

 general shape of tlie head that is already started. Cut out all water- 

 sprouts, remove crowded branches as well as those crossed and growing 

 in the wrong direction, and head in any particularly long leaders. 



RENEWING NEGLECTED APPLE TREES. 



One of the problems that confronts the growers in Nebraska is how to 

 renew their old neglected trees, how to get them thinned out and properly 

 shaped so they will bear large, well-colored fruits instead of the hall-sized, 

 poorly colored crops that they are now producing. There are two or three 

 things necessary to bring this about: First, the trees themselves must be 

 relieved of a great portion of their wood. This should be done in such a 



Fig. 2. 



way as not to unbalance the tree. Where it is necessary to take out a 

 great portion of the old wood in renewing old apple trees it is probably 

 better to distribute the pruning over a period of two or three years. If in 

 order to get the tree properly thinned out it is necessary to remove one- 

 third of the wood, great care should be taken to distribute the cutting 

 equally throughout the top, and not simply take out a few of the larger 

 branches. 



