PRUNING APPLE TREES. 105 



pruning more successfully than in any other way, and. when we 

 find our branches diverging we always cut them off. You also 

 discuss the matter of high headed and low headed trees. 

 With us some advocate the one and some the other. There are 

 many advantages in low headed trees very essential to their 

 cultivation. In a low headed tree the evaporation is not so 

 rapid as if it were headed up four or five feet; in that way we 

 conserve the moisture. It also protects the trunk of the tree 

 and makes it more economical in gathering the fruit; so most 

 growers, perhaps, are in favor of low headed trees. I am glad 

 to accept your invitation to jjarticipate in your discussions. 



Mr. E. M. Sherman, (Iowa): If I understood Mr. Richardson 

 right, he advises the early pruning of trees, before the trees 

 start in the spring and also at any time during the summer. Is 

 that the practice here? 



Mr. Richardson: I make a practice of pruning my orchard 

 trees very little. Where I see two limbs are rubbing each 

 other, I take one off almost at any time, when I see it. My 

 orchard is young, and there is nothing I cannot cut off with a 

 sharp knife. I have not had any experience with large trees. 

 My life has been spent really just ahead of the apples; nearly 

 all of my life has been just ahead of the apples. When I left 

 Illinois, they had not got to growing apples. 



Mr. J. S. Harris: I have found that the very worst of all 

 times to prune a tree is at the time the sap begins to circulate, 

 at the time the leaves are nearly full grown. During that time 

 the sap is so thin that the wound does not dry up, but the pro- 

 cess of bleeding takes place and very often discolors the bark, 

 and the effect is a black hearted tree. Spring pruning I want 

 to do before the frost is out of the ground; then there is no 

 danger of a flow of sap; it gets two or three days to heal up. 

 After the leaf is formed and the process of making wood com- 

 mences, you can continue pruning up to August, but the best 

 time, according to my experience, is from the 15th of June to 

 the 15th of July. A tree then pruned heals over the same day, 

 and it makes no discoloration in the wood and will not affect the 

 tree in any way. 



Mr. G. J. Kellogg, (Wisconsin): There was one point 

 brought out this morning which should have been dis- 

 cussed more fully, and that is the question of the location 

 of orchards. While I am somewhat of a crank on location, 

 I do not wish any of my farmer friends to feel that they 

 cannot set out an orchard because the conditions are 



