PRUNING THE ORCHARD. 2C1 



The orchardists of the central portion of the United States have not 

 yet, only in comparatively few instances, felt compelled to thin fruit West 

 of the mountains, however, with the greater probability of favorable 

 weather during the blooming period there is a strong probability that 

 more fruit will be set than can be safely carried by the tree. This com- 

 pels us to thin the fruit in June and July and sometimes in August. Since 

 the number of apples must be lessened something can be done in pruning 

 to lessen the amount of fruit-bearing wood and lessen the amount of 

 fruit that must be carefully removed in thinning. The intermountain 

 and Pacific coast orchardists therefore would leave a smaller amount of 

 bearing wood, fruit spurs, and fruit buds than would be left by the or- 

 chardists of the central portion of the United States or the far East 

 states. These considerations have weight and are faken into account in 

 deciding on methods of pruning. 



The pruning during the life of the tree should be such as not to leave 

 long naked branches. Guard against this by pruning annually. Endeavor 

 to have bearing twigs and branches distributed well over the tree in such 

 manner that the tree is well able to support the load of fruit without the 

 necessity of props or the danger of breaking down. 



In the Manville and Hurst orchards near Boise, we notice they have 

 been particularly successful in distribution of the fruit well over the tree 

 and have developed fruit-bearing, short branches and small limbs on the 

 main and minor branches of the tree, the fruit being near enough to the 

 stronger branches to bear very heavy loads without breaking down. 



It is of the utmost importance that apple trees should receive annual 

 pruning, otherwise long shoots, four, five and six feet in length, may be 

 thrown out. The fruit is ultimately borne away out on these long 

 branches, which bend under the great weight and ofttimes break. Trees 

 suffering from this lack of pruning were very noticeable in the Payette 

 Valley in the fall of 1910 when many overladen and improperly formed 

 trees were badly broken. 



THE TIME OF PRUNING-. 



Based on our forty years' experience in Nebraska with the largest 

 ■commercial interests in that state, it has been our habit to utilize all good 

 weather from late November on. The cultivation and care of the trees 

 should be such as to ripen the wood in early October, after which the 

 trees may be pruned whenever dormant or not severely frozen. We pre- 

 fer late November and December pruning because at that season we are 

 likely to have good weather. Our men worked all through this last De- 

 cember, rapidly and with comfort. By the end of December we had 

 pruned our own orchard of thirty-six thousand trees and some four hun- 

 dred acres for other parties. 



In January we had deep snow followed later by deep mud, making 

 the conditions tiresome for our workmen in walking from tree to tree. 

 So far we have pruned something more than 1,300 acres of orchard this 

 winter and we yet have a force of men engaged in pruning for other 



