HOW TO GROW AND MARKET FRUIT 



sun (against tendencies to the opposites of these), and leaving 

 space under the branches for horses and tools. 



Keep these words before you as you work about the trees 

 "a low head and an open head." They will suggest the removal 

 of this and of that little limb, the pinching of tips here and 

 there, the leaving of others. A well-trained tree that has reached 

 bearing age in good form can be kept right with very little 

 cutting afterward. Few trees need .central leaders only 

 those of the plums, pears, apples, etc., which grow very up- 

 right in the spring, and then spread away out as the fruit 

 develops. Some horticulturists advise us not 'to remove big 

 limbs when we can avoid it. We do not agree with that, for 

 limbs should be removed when there is a reason for it, even if 

 they are a foot thick. Of course the work must be done 

 right, as explained later. Still, the time to remove limbs is 

 when you can do it with your fingers pinching buds or with 

 light pruning-shears or a pocket-knife. Direct the growth to 

 where it is needed. 



Remember this: A limb never gets any higher from the 

 ground that it was when it started. Decide when you plant 

 and first prune where you want the head of your trees to start. 

 Some trees have to be cut back to a mere stick, as is correct 

 with peach; with other kinds, such as apple and quince trees 

 old enough to be branched, you have to select, then and there, 

 the limbs you want for the framework of the head, and nip 

 these back to buds growing in the direction you want the 

 branches to continue. One big grower likes to have one main 

 trunk from which the five or six frame-limbs grow out in a 

 rising spiral; others prefer to have all the limbs start at nearly 

 the same height; but all agree that no two limbs should be 

 opposite each other, because this will form a fork that will 

 split. 



Trees are just as free with their buds while young as they 

 are with seeds when older. Hundreds of buds are produced 

 for every branch or blossom that can grow. We do not even 

 see all the buds; you can remove every one you can find, yet 

 by the next season the tree will have brought to Jight more 

 dormant buds than you removed. Because of this you can 

 train twigs and branches to grow into almost any direction 

 you wish. It is not a question of pruning as little as possible; 

 it is a matter of selecting the one bud out of a hundred that is 

 to live; and you want to select this bud, for if you do not, 

 nature will for you, but probably not in the way that is best 

 for producing fine fruit. Do not think you can keep all the 

 growth a tree makes, or nearly all. Make up your mind that 

 a good part of it must die, from one cause or another. It is 

 the law of nature. You must direct the growth into a proper 

 form. 



Certain tendencies of trees must be remembered when you 

 cut off buds or branches. First, a young tree is likely to grow 

 faster than an old one, therefore it requires more heading 

 back than an older one. Any tree will try to grow first from 

 its topmost or outermost buds. Always cut to a bud or branch , 



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