PRUNING. 213 



in September and October. j\Iy neighbors come to. me and ask me 

 when they shall prune their trees, and I tell them when pruning is 

 necessary and at the proper time. You should never cut off a 

 limb larger than a half inch, and if it is an inch you had better 

 paint the wound tO' prevent the bark from loosening by the action 

 of the frost during the winter. I may be wrong as to the time, 

 gentlemen, but I would not advocate September and October 

 pruning. It may be that we are wrong in Iowa, but the concensus 

 of opinion there is that May and June are the proper months in 

 which to prune, and if we are wrong about this matter we want to 

 know it. 



Mr. John Nordine : The Jewell Nursery Co. has some six 

 thousand trees in its orchard, and we have experimented as to the 

 best time to prune, pruning in nearly all seasons, and we have found 

 that the most favorable time tO' prune is in the month of June, 

 because when pruned at that time they heal over and do not bleed. 



Prof. N. E. Hansen (S. D.) : As to the advice given to trim 

 when your knife is sharp, that is a pretty good piece of advice 

 if you lose your knife. (Laughter.) The result of pruning is this: 

 In the spring the sap goes up in the sap wood, is worked over in 

 the leaves — boiled down, as it were. The leaves are the stomach 

 and, in a sense, the lungs of the tree. After the sap is digested 

 it goes into the cambium layer. The first half of June is the time 

 when that process is beginning, and the healing process only takes 

 place in this cambium layer. If you have any trimming to do, do 

 it in June, that is the best time ; that is the time when the healing 

 process begins ; it begins in June and continues until the latter 

 part of August or September. If you have any trimming to do 

 in October you can do it, because I believe it is better then than 

 early in the spring, it has time to season over during the winter. 

 Here is the main thing to be noted. The old theory of surgery 

 was to cut off the limb so^ as to kill the germ after it gets into the 

 wound, but in the modern method of antiseptic surgery the germs 

 are kept out of the wound. If you keep the germs out you can 

 make a success of your trimming. Keep the germs out until the 

 cambium is healed over. The chances are you forget to paint 

 the wood until the germ gets in, and if the germs get in your tree 

 is doomed to an early death. You must keep the germs out if 

 you wish to make a success of your pruning. 



Mr. C. C. Hunter : What is the best thing with which to 

 cover the wound? 



Prof. Hansen : Grafting wax is a good thing, but common 

 red paint will also answer. 



Capt. A. H. Reed : Do you believe. Prof. Hansen, that sap 

 returns to the root, or does it expend itself in forming new wood in 

 the fall? 



Prof. Hansen : Yes, certainly it returns to the roots, other- 

 wise they would not grow any bigger. That is where the difficulty 

 lies in girdling. If you take out a ring of bark you prevent the 

 downward flow of sap. You girdle your apple trees, and perhaps 

 your apples will be bigger, but it will be at the expense of the 

 roots, and it will kill the tree in time. So the result is that you 



