1913] on Investigations at the Woburn Fruit Farm 649 



making- up for the absence of growth during the first year, and it 

 peivseveres in tliis habit of growing in subsequent years, when it ought 

 to be growing and fruiting as well. [SUde shown.] 



Passing on to the question of the annual pruning of a tree, it may 

 be mentioned in the first place, though I will not trouble you with 

 the details, that it has been found, just as in the case of cutting 

 back, that it does not matter at what period of the year this is done, 

 so long as it is not done while the tree is in active growth. As to 

 the extent of this pruning, however, more may be said. It is a 

 common belief that the more you prune a tree the more it will grow. 

 It seems fairly obvious that, even if true at all, this must be true 

 only within certain limits ; and, as applied to young freely growing 

 trees, it appears to be quite untrue. Various plantations of similar 

 trees at Woburn have been systematically pruned to different 

 extents during the seventeen years since they were first planted, and 

 the photographs of average specimens from these plantations are 

 sufficient to show that, as regards the general size, the trees which 

 have never been pruned are larger than those which are pruned 

 moderately, and these again are larger than those which have been 

 pruned hard. [Slides shown.] What may be noticed as to the 

 latter is that it is a sturdier tree than that pruned moderately, the 

 trunk and main branches having gone on swelling, while the exten- 

 sion of the branches was prevented by the severe pruning. On the 

 other hand, the unpruned tree, as might naturally be expected, is 

 somewhat straggly and not well shaped. 



Another experiment will illustrate the extent to which pruning is 

 opposed to growth. Four strictly similar twigs, 36 inches long, were 

 selected on the same tree : one was not cut back, the others were 

 shortened to 24, 12 and 6 inches, respectively. [Slide shown.] At 

 the end of the following season the weight of these twigs (taking the 

 average of many series) was in the proportion of 562 : 310 : 178 : 100, 

 and from every point of view the growth of the twigs had been 

 greater in proportion as they had been less pruned. [Slide shown,] 



In one respect the advantage of reducing the pruning is not appa- 

 rent from a mere inspection of these photographs : this advantage con- 

 sists in there being more fruit-buds, and, therefore, a greater promise 

 of fruit, the less the twigs were pruned : the relative proportions of 

 fruit-buds in these cases were 314 : 238 : 165 : 100. That this promise 

 is actually fulfilled in practice, is proved by the records of the crops 

 borne by plantations of similar trees which have for many years been 

 pruned to different extents. In one case these plantations contained 

 three different varieties of apples, it was found that during the first 

 five years, and also during the second five years, the unpruned trees 

 bore twice as much, and the hard-pruned ones little more than half 

 as much, as the trees which had been pruned moderately. [SHde 

 shown.] These trees were on the paradise stock ; but the same was 

 found to be the case with apples on the crab stock, for we have 



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