The Canadian Horticulturist. 119 



CAUSES OF FAILURE IN APPLE CULTURE.-IL 



An Address by the Secretary. 

 4. Bad Pruning, 



' N his mistaken zeal for promoting the vigor of his apple orchard, many 

 a farmer does it irreparable injury. The great stumps of large limbs, 

 eating their way with rottenness into the interior, bear witness to the 

 truth of my statement. I wholly condemn the common method of 

 butchering apple trees. 



On Maplehurst Fruit Farm, my oldest orchard, though over seventy- 

 five years of age, would be in prime condition for another twenty-five 

 years only for this practice. 



Indeed those trees which, on account cf inferiority of kind, were most neg- 

 lected by the pruner, are now the healthiest and finest in the orchard ; while the 

 others are rotten at heart, or hollow, from the great wounds made in pruning. 



Many people always insist on removing the leading centre branch, to let in 

 the sun as they say. We wholly object to this system, and would commend 

 somewhat of the pyramidal form, as the ideal for the pruner. This is produced 

 by encouraging the growth of a strong, leading shoot, about which all others 

 are allowed to grow as symmetrically as possible. The annual pruning will then 

 consist simply in thinning out all superfluous small branches which tend to cross 

 each other. 



Probably there is no subject upon which more confused notions exist than 

 with regard to the time and manner of pruning trees and vines. Some who 

 pretend to know give such definite advice as, " Prune when your knife is sharp," 

 and others advocate no pruning at all. Some say prune in the winter, some in 

 summer, and others in the fall. In the multiplicity and contrariety of the advice, 

 who wonders that we see so many slovenly kept trees throughout our country ? 



First, with regard to the time of pruning We have under this head a very 

 old adage, which it is well to remember, viz. : " Prune in winter for wood, in 

 summer for fruit," and probably no better general rule could be given. The 

 philosophy of this is explained by the fact that anything which checks the wood 

 growth of the tree, tends to the metamorphosis of leaf-buds into fruit-buds ; and, 

 on the contrary, that which favors wood growth, lessens that tendency. Thus 

 while a tree is young and growing rapidly, it produces no fruit ; but when it has 

 attained a certain degree of maturity, and grows less vigorously, it begins to 

 produce fruit. On the same principle it is that a tree that has been girdled will 

 often be overloaded with blossoms, though not yet of the usual bearing age, or 

 limbs which are artificially bent down will yield fruit before the other limbs of 

 the same tree. Now, summer pruning checks the growth of the tree, and there- 

 fore tends to increase its fruitfulness. By it we remove the foliage just when it 



