104 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



WHEN? 



Early in the spring-, so that the wood will have a chance to dry 

 and harden some before the sap starts; and through the summer at 

 almost any time before the first of August, always keeping- in mind 

 that heavy suinmer pruning seriously injures a tree. Small trees 

 can be brought into proper shape by judicious and persistent 

 pinching. 



HOW? 



With a sharp saw and knife, sawing from the underside of the 

 limb first, when a limb of any size has to be removed, a thing to be 

 avoided if possible. 



Pres. Underwood: Mr. Dunlap, I think you are interested 

 in this apple discussion. You are a very quiet man for a 

 " sucker." 



Mr. H. M. Dunlap, (Illinois): I do not think I can add any 

 thing of value to the apple discussion, but I find in listening to 

 that discussion that quite different conditions surround you 

 here from those that surround us in Illinois. It has impressed 

 itself very much upon my mind since I have been here. While 

 we have hard work in growing apples in Illinois, I think we 

 have an advanced condition from what you have here, judging 

 from what the members have said. It is possibly an actual 

 reality that those members have not got many apples at home, 

 but judging from the discussion I should think those cases were 

 few and far between. I am much interested in the discussion, 

 although I just came here. We have found out that we have a 

 great many things to learn in Illinois, but we have come to the 

 conclusion that there are few things we can tie to in the way of 

 varieties. Our main discussion is in relation to profits. We 

 have a great many varieties we can grow in some years. I was 

 interested this morning in the matter of pruning trees. We 

 have there adopted a little different process from any I have 

 heard suggested here, the cutting back of branches. That has 

 usually been done when we set our trees out from the nursery; 

 we simply cut off all the limbs that are superfluous, cut them 

 back to the leader, leaving only those set branches that we 

 expect to remain on the tree, and we keep them from four to 

 six inches apart, so that when the tree grows there will be no 

 bad places for the weather or any other causes to affect the life 

 of the trees. Cut out half the branches and let them go alto- 

 gether. We find in our state it is necessary to shape the limbs 

 of the trees so they will not spread down with the weight of a 

 heavy crop of fruit, and we accomplish it by this method of 



