PRUNING THE CHERRY 231 



The best distances are 24 or 28 feet on such deep soils as have 

 been described as best befitting the tree and, though one may fix his 

 distance in planting according to the method of pruning he pro- 

 poses to follow, he should remember that the cherry is naturally a 

 large tree, and most old orchards are now over-crowded. 



As with other trees, orchard planters prefer trees with one year's 

 growth on the bud in the nursery, because they usually get, then, a 

 straight switch with well developed buds all the way down, and the 

 head can be formed as desired. For garden planting, older trees, 

 properly pruned in the nursery, can be used to advantage. 



PRUNING THE CHERRY 



All our best growers agree in the advantage of a low head for 

 the cherry, and all aim to have trunks of young trees from the 

 ground up to the limbs literally covered all around with leaves, 

 which completely shelter the bark from the rays of the sun. In 

 planting, therefore, the side buds are carefully preserved not to be 

 grown into branches, but to be cut or pinched back when they have 

 come out a few inches, leaving just growth enough to clothe the 

 tree with a covering of its own foliage. These spurs not only furnish 

 leaves to shade the trunk, but soon become fruit spurs, and bear well. 



Low Heading with a Central Stem. Some of the trees in the 

 older orchards have been shaped by carrying up a leader with a 

 regular system of side branches. Head back at planting to two feet, 

 pinching off the shoots below the head as stated, and allowing the 

 shoots which form the head to grow larger, but they, too, are all to 

 be pinched except the leader, which is allowed to grow as long as 

 it pleases during the summer. During fall or winter pruning cut 

 back the leader to about twelve or sixteen inches from its starting 

 point and cut back the side branches to about six or eight inches. 

 This is done year after year, cutting back and pruning out the 

 side shoots, pinching the laterals, and allowing the leader to grow, 

 never interfering with it until the winter pruning and always letting 

 it predominate over the side shoots. By cutting short, wood is in- 

 creased, but at the end of six years the tree goes into fruit very 

 rapidly. As the tree increases in fruit it decreases in wood, and by 

 the time it is ten or twelve years old there will be but little cutting 

 to do, except to shorten in and thin out, and this requires some 

 judgment and experience, to know where to cut, and when to cut. 

 To shorten in, never cut down to an old fruit spur. It is very dif- 

 ficult to get healthy wood out of such ; but whenever you can find 

 last year's wood, there you can cut with safety anything that is less 

 than one inch in diameter. 



This system of pruning must be accompanied by constant pinch- 

 ing during the summer time. It should commence when the lower 

 shoots are about six inches long, and be followed up closely all 

 through the growing season. Those on the trunk should never get 

 longer than eight or ten inches, under any circumstances. After 

 these are pinched, let the trees rest ten or fifteen days, or until the 



