Pruning Peach Trees 209 



cutting back to stubs li to 2 inches in diameter or the usual 

 shortening in as practiced to meet normal conditions. 



Walker Mn Arkansas and Whitten^in Missouri, on the other 

 hand, secured by far the best recovery in trees five to seven 

 years old that were headed back to stubs from li to 2 inches 

 in diameter. The lighter heading-in and no pruning at all 

 were much less satisfactory. While Whitten reported that 

 some of the heavily pruned trees were so slow in starting it 

 was thought for a time they would fail entirely to do so, they 

 made very rapid growth when they once began to develop. 



It is difficult to harmonize the conflicting results mentioned 

 above. They are consistent, however, with certain differ- 

 ences that have been discussed in another place. In Arkansas 

 and Missouri, where the heaviest heading back proved the 

 best pruning treatment for badly winter-injured trees, the 

 normal winter temperatures are rather mild with occasional 

 decidedly warm spells, while the regions in which the better 

 results followed heading back only to wood i or f inch in 

 diameter are all located where the normal winter is quite 

 continuously cold in comparison. ^Vhether the differences 

 in the results that have been noted are correlated with the 

 different temperature conditions in the several regions and 

 their influence on the vegetative processes of the trees is 

 impossible to settle on the basis of present evidence. 



The pruning discussed under this heading would ordi- 

 narily be done in late winter after the effect of the low 

 temperature had become apparent or in the spring before 

 growth starts very much. In many cases, however, it is 

 difficult or even impossible to detect that a tree has been 

 injured by winter conditions. This is true especially where 

 injured trees are scattered here and there throughout an 



1 Ark. Exp. Sta. Bull. 79. = Mo. Exp. Sta. Bull. 55. 



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