PRUNING THE ORCHARD. 259 



with strong one-year-old trees instead of using two, three, four, or even 

 five-year-old trees, as was our habit in Nebraska. 



Why does the western planter select the yearling tree? 



Under irrigation and with the longer season of the intermountain 

 basin and on the Pacific coast, a well grown one-year-old apple tree may 

 have nearly as much vigor as a medium two-year-old in the central and 

 eastern states. To select a yearling tree for planting enables the orchard- 

 ists to prune in a uniform manner and have practically all of the trees 

 headed at the same height. The nurseryman favors the sale of trees at 

 the age of one year because he gets a speedy return for labor and capi- 

 tal invested. The one-year-old trees 'can be afl!orded at a lower price than 

 the older trees. 



HOW TO PRUNE ONE-YEAR-OLDS. 



In pruning the one-year-old tree at time of planting it is well to leave 

 the top bud on the windward side, here the north or northwest side of the 

 tree, to cut the tree at perhaps the height of twenty-four to thirty inches, 

 being governed somewhat by the position of the stronger buds on the 

 trunk. The aim is to grow three to six shoots the first season to form 

 the branches of the future tree. At the end of the first season it is not 

 well to cut back too close to the trunk. Aim to prune in such form as 

 will develop four, five, or six main branches, and these so distributed that 

 each branch will have plenty of room to develop. Avoid two branches 

 coming out nearly together, since these forking at one point are liable 

 to cause one branch, which, when heavily laden with fruit splits. 

 Some scientific pruners aim to start the head of the future tree with 

 three main branches. It will be evident, however, that the greatest num- 

 ber of boxes of apples can not be borne on a three-branch tree. 



In the orchard of Manville and Hurst, near Boise, on sixteen-year-old 

 trees, each of which produced sixty-two, and sixty-three boxes of apples 

 last fall, we noticed that the most productive trees were trained with five 

 or six main branches, and that the after pruning has been such as to give 

 very large and well branched heads, capable of supporting two thousand 

 five hundred pounds of apples. 



At this age of the tree in pruning it is well to bear in mind the direc- 

 tion from which the stronger winds blow. Near Nampa they come from 

 the northwest. Aim to save strong buds pushing to the north and north- 

 west; encourage the tree to grow strongly to the north and west and 

 lessen the weight of the growth on the south side. 



WHAT TO DO SECOND YEAR. 



In December of the second year's growth of the tree we again prune, 

 leaving from twelve to twenty inches of new wood. Professors Paddock 

 and Whipple, with long experience in Colorado, advise allowing each 

 shoot to make two more the succeeding season, and let the tree gain 

 annually about fourteen inches in length of branch. The Grand Junc- 

 tion, Colorado, orchardists advise to allow, on thrifty vigorous trees, 



