^jotes and Comments 





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Fig. 2516. KiEFFER Pear Tree, Unpruned. 



PRUNING KIEFFER PEARS AND JAPAN 

 PLUMS 



THE very rapid growth of the Kieffer 

 pear tree renders heroic pruning 

 necessary, otherwise we would have such a 

 mass of wood as to render the tree useless. 

 Many of our most progressive fruit growers 

 cut the wood back most severely, especially 

 during the first five or six years of its 

 growth, first thinning the number of its 

 branches, and then cutting the remaining 

 ones back from one half to two-thirds of 



their growth each year. Fig. 2516, from 

 the American Agriculturist, is a very good 

 representation of a Kieffer tree untrimmed, 

 and fig. 2517 of a Kieffer after being tho- 

 roughly pruned. 



Wickson and Abundance plums have 

 much the same habit of growth as the Kief- 

 fer pear, and. in our opinion, need a simi- 

 lar method of pruning ; otherwise the young 

 growth will in time be out of all reach, and 

 the branches too long and willowy ; but the 

 Burbank is a great sprawler, and of crooked, 

 rampant, tangled habit. This plum needs 

 close shortening in to keep it within any 

 possible bounds. 



Fig. 2517. Kieffer, Pruned. 



