146 



Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [10 March, 1917. 



complete the establishnieut of the leader systems of the trees. Should 

 it be desired to prevent the continuance of rank growths, manuring 

 may be suspended for a year or two until the trees begin to bear. Then 

 their branch systems may be easily controlled by pruning, when the 

 application of fertilizers may be resumed with advantage. 



Plate 66 shows a row of ten-year-old Yates growing in a portion 

 of the same orchard. Their treatment, while young, was in every 

 particular similar to that which those in Plate 65 received, except 

 that they were established on much higher stems than the four-year- 

 old trees. 



The general adoption of short stems during recent years has been 

 brought about as a result of experiments during the evolution of 

 modern pruning science. 



Plate 67. — Pomme de Neige, fourteen years old, unpruned. 



These trees, although making fairly strong growth annually, are 

 good, consistent bearers, and thoroughly amenable to annual winter 

 pruning. 



Pruning the Pomme de Neige. 



The Pomme de Neige displays thriftiness, even on poor soil, and 

 makes strong growth when cultivated in a district where the land is 

 more suitable, and where the climatic conditions generally favour apple 

 culture. Like the Yates, strong growing trees, even while young, do 

 not produce fruit of a correspondingly large size, as it is invariably 

 of a rather small dessert standard. But, unlike the Yates, when the 

 Pomme de Neige trees are weak the fruit they yield does not become 

 reduced in size in the same ratio as in the case of the Yates. 



