March, 1916. 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



a 



Pruning Trees to Promote Production' 



M. B. Davis, B.S.A., Experimental Farm, Ottawa 



A consideration of methods of 

 pruning divides itself into three 

 main divisions, first, the prun- 

 ing and training of the young tree be- 

 fore it reaches bearing age ; second, the 

 pruning treatment of the bearing tree, 

 and third, the best treatment for many 

 of the older, thick planted, high tree 

 orchards that are so common in many 

 districts to-day. 



It may be well, first, if we ask our- 

 selves why we prune, for there are 

 those who contend that pruning is an 

 injury rather than a help. On the other 

 hand, there are those who go to the 

 other extreme and think that butcher- 

 ing their trees is the only treatment 

 worth while. 



We prune primarily to obtain better 

 fruit and in so far as our pruning prac- 

 tices help along that one point, just so 

 far is our pruning a success. We do 

 not, or at least should not, prune to 

 obtain a beautiful or sightly tree. A 

 tree possessing beauty alone does not 

 add dollars to our pockets, so that look 

 at it as you may we prune only to ob- 

 tain better fruit. If left alone, with 

 plenty of room in which to grow, a tree 

 will, all other things being favorable, 

 produce an abundant quantity of fruit, 

 for nature will see to it that her prun- 

 ing is sufficient to keep the tree in ex- 

 cellent bearing condition, but what of 

 the quality? The quality will invari- 

 ably be of a low grade, for nature, when 

 it produced the apple did not have 



•Extract from a paper read at the recent an- 

 nual convention of the Nova Scotia Fruit 

 Growers' Association. 



man in mind, but merely produced the 

 fruit as a means of enclosing the seeds 

 in an attractive little parcel which 

 would nurture and protect them until 

 carried and scattered over the face of 

 the earth by some fruit loving animal. 

 Thus we come to the ultimate conclu- 

 sion that we prune only to obtain bet- 

 ter fruit from our trees. 



There is no operation in the orchard 

 which requires greater care or greater 

 thought and study; there is no opera- 

 tion which in the long run has as much 

 to do with orchard profits as pruning. 

 I sometimes think that we fruit growers 

 have gone clean mad over spraying 

 and some other operations and in our 

 madness have forgotten the first and 

 fundamental road to success, proper 

 pruning. 



The different types of trees that we 

 may grow may be roughly divided into 

 three classes. One is the pyramidal 

 form, another is the open centres, and 

 the one that I recommend for Nova 

 Scotia conditions is a combination of 

 the two. The first or pyramidal form, 

 which consists of a central leader, with 

 branches radiating off from it, gives 

 too large and too high a tree for your 

 conditions. It shuts out too much sun- 

 light, thus making the production of 

 clean, well colored fruit a more diffi- 

 cult task than it should be. Now there 

 is probably no fruit section under the 

 sun where all the available sunlight 

 possible is needed more than in the 

 two fruit growing valleys of Nova Sco- 

 tia; furthermore, there are few sec- 



Thl.s Northern Spy tree was dehorned two years before this photograph was secured, 

 how the cuts were made and- the new growth and siirkors forming on barren arms. 



Note 



This shows a centre leader type of tree. 



tions where insect pests, and fungous 

 diseases naturally thrive any better 

 than in your climate, so that the first 

 factor in directing the shape of the tree 

 is sanitation, and the central leader 

 type cannot be called a sanitary type 

 of tree. The open centre tree, while 

 possessing admirable sanitary qualities, 

 does not possess the strength of the cen- 

 tral leader type, so that a combination 

 of the two is more desirable. 



The combination type consists in al- 

 lowing the central leader to grow for 

 the first year until five or six good 

 branches arranged in a whorl and well 

 spaced can be selected to form the 

 framework of the tree. 



By well spacing these scaffold limbs 

 the tree is stronger than if all the limbs 

 should arise from a small area where 

 they would each be pulling against the 

 other and would break down under 

 heavy winds or heavy loads of fruit. 

 The central leader is not allowed to 

 grow to any great height, so that you 

 have a type with the combined advant- 

 ages of the pyramidal form and the 

 open centre and with their objections 

 eliminated. 



Having decided on the form our tree 

 shall take we are now ready to follow 

 the pruning, year by year. The first 

 year, or the year the tree is set out, it 

 will be necessary to head back all 

 branches in order to give the roots an 

 opportunity to get a hold and to make 

 our trees stocky instead of long and 

 willowy. In recent experiments con- 

 ducted by the Station at Kentville, 

 trees cut back when planted made a 

 growth of 4.82 inches the first year and 

 twenty inches the second, while trees 

 not headed at all made a growth of one 

 inch the first year and only 2.4 inches 

 the second vear. 



