Pruning Peach Trees 203 



of repeated primings of this sort, on the same trees, and to 

 work out the details of the method after the first season, but 

 the results in increased fruit-bud formation in the interior of 

 the trees treated one season were so striking in comparison 

 with those not summer pruned that it was assumed appar- 

 ently that the principle was proved. The results of this 

 type of pruning when delayed till August were disastrous in 

 that very few fruit-buds formed. 



Though some investigators, and orchardists as well, have 

 secured well-defined results in favor of summer pruning, 

 others have obtained either negative or adverse results. 

 While it is a question that may well continue to receive 

 thought and consideration by experimenters and fruit- 

 growers, it should be practiced with considerable discretion 

 and caution in commercial orchards, where a crop of fruit 

 is at stake, until the conditions under which it is consistently 

 beneficial are better understood than they are at present. 

 Further, since summer pruning tends to check the growth, 

 but very little at the most should be done the first season 

 after planting as well as on older trees that are making a 

 weak growth. 



PRUNING IN RELATION TO WINTER INJURY 



The relation between pruning and winter injury may vary 

 in different regions depending on the climatic conditions. It 

 manifests itself principally through the vigor of the trees 

 and in the time when the seasonal growlh matures. The 

 effect in this respect is comparable to that of tillage and the 

 time of its cessation for the season. Chandler^ reports the 

 results of some observations and experiments in Missouri 

 along this line. 



1 Mo. Exp. Sta. Bull. 74. 



