PRUNING THE ORCHARD. 



23 



natural methods of reproducing themselves. 

 The first is by means of shoots or buds ; this 

 is known as the vegetative reproduction or 

 reproduction by growth. Every bud on a 

 tree if placed under proper conditions, as is 

 done in the practice of grafting or budding, 

 is capable of producing a tree like the one 

 from which it was taken. The other method 

 of reproduction is by the seed of the fruit. 

 If the tree is growing a great deal of wood 

 it produces little fruit and vice versa. The 

 skill of the pruner is required to maintain 

 the proper balance between the reproduction 

 by growth and by fruit. If one kind of re- 

 production is getting too much the start of 

 the other, it is only necessary to check the 

 predominant one. If trees are pruned in 

 the growing period, growth will be checked 

 and fruiting stimulated. Summer pruning 

 should be mostly confined to heading back 

 too fast growing branches. If, on the other 

 hand the centre of the tree is thinned out, 

 the fruit-bearing branches are removed, and 

 the energies of the tree are again forced into 

 wood growth. The growth of the tree might 

 also be checked by stopping cultivation and 

 sowing the orchard to some clover crop, or 

 the plow might be made to run a little deeper 

 so as to cut off the surface feeding roots, 

 and root prune the tree. 



Pruning for Wood Growth. — Pruning 

 for vegetative wood growth is that which 

 has been outlined for the young growing 

 tree. Cut out all dead, broken and de- 

 formed limbs and those which cross or rub 

 one another. Care should be taken to keep 

 the tree free from suckers, so that there is a 

 free circulation of air through the tree, and 

 the sunlight is let in sufficiently to give the 

 fruit a good color. 



Healing of Wounds. — Limbs to be re- 

 moved should be cut off as smoothly as pos- 

 sible with a sharp saw, and as close to the 

 main stem as possible. When a limb en- 

 ters a shoulder at the trunk, the cut should 

 be as close to the shoulder as possible, yet 



never through it. There should never be 

 any stump left because the cambium dies 

 back, and when the stump decays there is a 

 hole left which is apt to cause the trunk of 

 the tree to rot and become hollow. Prun- 

 ing shears are bad tools, as they pinch the 

 bark and injure the delicate cambium be- 

 neath, and a badly healing wound is the re- 

 sult. Torn wounds are a source of danger 



Fig. 2224.— Soft maple, cut back, giving the 

 undesirable effect of a brushpi'e on a hop pole in 

 winter, and a haycock on a gate post in svimmer. 

 (By permission from U. S. Year Book of Agricul- 

 ture, 1895.) 



to a tree. If larg^e limbs are to be removed, 

 which should never happen in good pruning, 

 there is a danger of the weight of the limb 

 tearing the bark. To avoid this cut from 

 below first and meet this cut with one from 

 above, or if this cannot be done cut off the 

 limb a foot from the tree and remove the 

 stub. Large wounds should be smeared 



