PRUNING OF FRUIT TREES. 



129 



early shipments of -^xravensteins this year were 

 really not good foy anything when they arrived in 

 London. I saw the Mediana's cargo, and the 

 apples were utterly useless. When the Graven- 

 steins commenced to arrive in thes3 bad steamers 

 it corroborated the opinion that they entertained 

 over there, that our Gravensteins were a failure. 

 There are some Gravensteins that came out of the 

 barrels which looked fairly well, but the flavor was 

 gone. I firmly bslieve eight days is the proper 

 time to deliver them : the high temparature in the 

 ships' hold causes the apples to decay rapidly. To 

 successfully ship sof: apples we need a t5-knot 

 service. Last spring apples brought fabulous 



prices — as high as 32s. per barrel — from twenty-four 

 to thirty-two shillings per barrel, I saw Fallawaters 

 selling at thirty-two shillings, and Golden Russets 

 at thirty-four shillings. There is no danger of 

 Canada producing more apples than is demanded. 

 I was in Paris a month, and I took particular 

 notice of our app'es sent over there in cold storage 

 for the Exposition, and I asked the man who had 

 charge of that exhibit if there was any danger of 

 our supply of apples exceeding the demand. He 

 replied there was not. He said he could sell eight 

 hundred thousand barrels in Germany alone if the 

 quality was guaranteed. 



PRUNING OF FRUIT TREES. 



HE PEACH. ^ — This tree requires spe- 

 ^.p^ cial pruning- to keep in a compact and 

 ^j stocky form, as it tends to grow large- 

 ly at the ends of the branches, and to pro- 

 duce few laterals on the main branches. 

 While the trees are young, at least one-half 

 of the last season's growth should be cut off 

 during- the latter part of the winter, varying 

 the amount cut from different parts of the 

 trees so as to produce a regularly formed 

 head. As the trees grows older, this prun- 

 ing- reduces the number of fruit buds, and 

 thus lessens the cost of thinning and im- 

 proves their g-rowth. It also often becomes 

 necessary to cut back some of the main 

 branches well into the centre of the tree to 

 force a lateral growth of new wood, without 

 which the long branches would soon break 

 down when heavily loaded with fruit, or 

 with foliage wet with rain in a hig-h wind. 



The Plum and Cherry. — The special 

 pruning required by these two fruits is the 

 heading in of strong leading shoots, while 

 young, to cause a stocky and compact growth 

 that can be easily cared for. Pinching the 

 shoots while young will often accomplish 

 the same end. 



The Grape. — The grape vine will stand 

 more pruning without injury than any other 

 fruit crop we grow, and, by the modern 

 method of training, the whole vine is prac- 

 tically renewed every two years. The fruit 

 is grown on the vigorous young wood of the 

 last season's growth, and the more vigorous 



and well ripened this wood is, the better will 

 be the product. Pruning may be done at 

 any time after the leaves fall up to March 

 1st. Summer pruning, or pinching is prac- 

 ticed to force the growth where desired, that 

 is, into the fruiting canes and into the next 

 season's fruit, and no surplus canes should 

 be grown that must be cut and thrown away 

 at the end of the season. 



Raspberry and Blackberry, — The fruit- 

 ing canes of these fruits should be cut out as 

 soon as the crop has been harvested, that all 

 growth may go into the new canes that are 

 to produce fruit next season. Such new 

 canes as are to be preserved for next sea- 

 son's fruiting should have the end taken off 

 when they reach three feet in height, and all 

 weak canes and those not needed to make a 

 well-stocked field should be treated as weeds 

 and be hoed or pulled up. 



Currants and Gooseberries. — An annual 

 pruning is generally given these fruits, cut- 

 ting out all wood over three years old, 

 keeping the bushes in a compact and stock 

 condition that will hold the fruit up from the 

 ground, where it will not be splattered by 

 the soil during heavy rains, and leaving a 

 limited amount of strong wood two or three 

 years old, which produces larger fruit than 

 will grow on old canes. All canes looking 

 sickly, which generally indicates a borer in 

 them, should be cut out and burned as soon 

 as discovered. — P^of. Maynard, in Massa- 

 chusetts Experimetit Station Report. 



