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BETTER FRUIT 



Page 9 



The Prunins; of Trees Is An Art Rather Than A Science 



THE pruning of fruit trees is an art 

 rather thian a science, for tlie rea- 

 son that each and every tree is a 

 unit and must be treated as such. No 

 two trees or units are alike, no two 

 units requiring the same treatment. 

 Again, different varieties frequently re- 

 quire different treatment. Therefore, 

 there can be no fixed or scientific rules 

 established which may be followed in 

 doing the work. The result, whether 

 for weal or woe, must depend upon the 

 genius of the individual in charge of 

 the pruning. An orchard may be 

 brought to high efTiciency, or its efTi- 

 cienc> may be destroyed by proper or 

 improper pruning. There is perhaps 

 no other department of agriculture 

 wherein men differ so much as in this 

 particular line. Indeed, it would be a 

 difficult matter to find two men who 

 agree in every particular in the pruning 

 of a given tree. It is a matter of judg- 

 ment — of art, if you please. The build- 

 ing of an ideal tree is the making of a 

 picture. It is the putting of your ideal 

 into form, and the reason, perhaps, no 

 two men agree in every particular in 

 the pruning of a given tree is because 

 their ideals are different. We all may 

 be after the same result, but some may 

 not place so nmch importance upon the 

 formation of the tree as others, hence 

 the difference of opinion. 



Why do we prune? The answer is: 

 To make the tree produce better fruit — 

 not more fruit. A fruit tree if left to 

 itself, under normal conditions, will 

 grow thrifty and produce abundantly 

 if never pruned h\ man, but the fruit 

 will be inferior and of little or no 

 value as fruit. Take the apple for illus- 

 tration. A natural or seedling apple 

 tree if left to itself will grow pro- 

 lifically, with innumerable branches, 

 and invariably will produce a great 

 crop of small, gnarly apples which are 

 scarcely fit for cider. Certainly not 

 much use to man. But did you ever 

 stop to think that that tree, according 

 to the wonderful plan of nature, is not 

 growing for man's benefit? Man is not 

 considered in its economy. Its great 

 purpose is to reproduce itself, which it 

 will do abundantly if not pirated by 

 man. If we examine these little apples, 

 we will find the\- have a tough, pithy 

 pulp or pericarp, within the center of 

 which are pluni]), well-developed seeds, 

 covered and splendidly protected by 

 hard, bony carpels. Thus you see it is 

 nature's plan for the tree to produce as 

 many seeds as possible which will 

 grow. It stores them away in the little 

 carpel pockets in the core of the apple, 

 beneficently surrounding the whole 

 with storcd-ui) food in the pericarp, 

 which together with the food tucked 

 away in the seed, will keep the germ in 

 the seed moist and nourish it until it 

 can establish its roots in the soil and 

 send up and unfold its leaves to the 

 sunlight and air. 



Man, with all his boasted abilities, 

 cannot produce an atom of food for 

 himself. He must i)irate it from the 



By Jay L. Reynolds, HortieuUurist, Spokane, Washington 



vegetable and animal kingdom. In his 



struggle for existence, and to supply 

 his wants and desires, he discovered 

 that by cutting back the limbs of the 

 apple trees, they would produce larger 

 fruit; that the pericarp of the apple 

 was very much enlarged and improved; 

 that he could make the tree produce 

 apples that were more juicy, of higher 

 flavor and of finer texture — an apple 

 that he could eat with very much 

 healthful enjoyment. The chances are 

 that, at first, the man who purposely 

 pruned an apple tree did not know the 

 why or wherefore of it all, but now we 

 know a little of why we prune it, and 

 the same will practically be true of all 

 fruit trees. 



The leaves are the manufacturing de- 

 partment of the plant. The plant food 

 in the soluble elements is gathered 

 from the soil by the plant rootlets, and 

 conveyed in a thin, watery form called 

 sap, up through the white or sap wood 

 in the outer portion of the tree, to the 

 leaves, where, by the effect of sunlight 

 and air, a change takes place. Just 

 what that change is is not definitely 

 known, but the botanist tells us that 

 here the sap is elaborated, whatever 

 that is, by the action of the sunlight 

 and air. Anyway, the leaves filter out 

 the plant food from the water and the 

 water is permitted to pass off into the 

 air. The food thus provided by the 

 leaves is then carried back along the 

 branches and limbs in a mucilaginous 

 form through the cambium layer to all 

 parts of the tree to build up new wood 

 growth as well as the fruit. A high 

 grade of fruit is dependent upon an in- 

 crease in the supply of sap and the 

 healthfulness of the leaves for size, 

 texture and flavor. Apples get their 

 color from the sunlight and air direct. 

 At least that is the prevailing thought. 

 You can no doubt now see how essen- 

 tial it is to concentrate and increase the 

 supply of sap and direct it into less 

 space for the benefit of the fruit, and 

 also to form the tree in such a manner 

 as to expose the largest possible leaf 

 and fruit surface to light and air. 



I will mention three forms in which 

 fruit trees may be trained, and each 

 has its admirers in greater or less num- 

 bers, namely: The central-stem form; 

 the double-story form, and the open- 

 center form. 



To train a tree with a central stem, 

 with limbs radiating from it, one above 

 another, or in any other form of a tree 

 which has limbs so situated that when 

 the tree is laden with fruit the limbs 

 will close down over each other, thus 

 shutting out the light and a free cir- 

 culation of air, is but to defeat the very 

 object sought in pro])er i)runing. 



The double-story form, or rather a 

 tree having a double head, one above 

 the other, formed by having one or 

 more leaders leading up from the lower 

 or main heading of the tree. The object 

 sought is to increase the fruit surface 

 on a given trunk. Personally, I don't 

 like the looks of the tree; it is only 



running the fruit up into the air and 

 harder to get, and I question the in- 

 creased fruit surface, and further, you 

 are pretty apt to get the same result as 

 with the central-stem tree. The limbs 

 closing down over each other. 



My ideal tree has an open center, 

 trained in the form of a goblet. I do 

 not mean that accentuated open top 

 which we see in some of the orchards, 

 but the tree trained or pruned in such 

 a manner that it has from four to six, 

 preferably five main limbs, at the head- 

 ing of framework of the tree, with 

 branches well directed to fill up all the 

 spaces on the outer parts of the tree, 

 then with secondary branches leading 

 from these main framework limbs up- 

 ward and to the center. Then you will 

 find that when the tree is laden with 

 fruit the limbs will bend away from 

 each other and the tree will unfold like 

 a flower, exposing the largest possible 

 leaf and fruit surface to the sunlight 

 and air. Never permit a long, slender 

 limb on your trees. Cut off terminal 

 ends so as to make them grow sturdy, 

 then they will hold up their fruit with- 

 out breaking and without propping. 



You can learn much about how to 

 prune your trees if you will but study 

 them when they are loaded with fruit. 

 In fact that is the time to pick out your 

 ideal tree. And, remember, in picking 

 out your ideal tree, you are not raising 

 trees to beautify the landscape. If 1 

 am not mistaken, you are endeavoring 

 to raise trees which will deliver the 

 largest return in api)le value. There- 

 fore, when pruning your trees, whether 

 they are large or small, endeavor to 

 shape them to that ideal, which with 

 me is one which will ijroduce and hold 

 up without breaking, bracing or prop- 

 ping, the largest measure of extra fancy 

 fruit. And it is not so much a question 

 of quantity as it is of quality. If you 

 once get your ideal tree in your mind 

 you will have no trouble in determin- 

 ing whether to cut this limb off or 

 leave that one on, for the picture in 

 your mind will determine that for you 

 if you are an artist. And if you are not 

 artistic enough to keep your ideal tree 

 in your mind while pruning you will 

 never be a good pruner. 



As soon as your trees are planted, cut 

 the top off anywhere from 20 to 30 

 inches from the ground, preferably 

 about 24 inches. I allow this range of 

 10 inches, viz., 20 to 30 inches, because 

 it is absolutely essential that the cut 

 be made above a good, well develoi)ed, 

 live bud, for, remember, the framework 

 of your tree must form below this 

 point, and if there is no live bud or 

 buds below where you cut the whip off 

 the young tree is liable to die, or if not, 

 it is liable to sprout out at the ground, 

 and if below the graft it will be value- 

 less. If you liave a prevailing wind in 

 your local it,\-, always cut to a bud on 

 the windward side of the tree. Keep 

 your young trees free from all such 

 sprouts as are not intended for the 

 heading or framework of the tree. This 



