PROPER TRAINING OF TREES 



checking are done, the production and ripening of one or two 

 fruits on a spur will prevent that spur from working ahead to 

 develop fruit buds for the next and the second year ahead. This 

 it has to do if it is to set fruit again before three years. 



Judicious tipping greatly helps fruit spurs to keep on form- 

 ing new fruit buds, and, of course, thinning the fruit aids greatly. 

 Still, it is a good plan to see that each year there are large num- 

 bers of fruit spurs which do not bear at all. Let some ripen 

 the crop for next year, others the crop for two years ahead, 

 and still others the crop for the third year to come. By careful 

 pruning you can develop on your trees enough fruit spurs to 

 do this. But it takes study and care not so much work at 

 any one time as a few minutes now and a few again. Watch 

 your trees expanding and growing. The trees will develop the 

 fewest possible fruit spurs if left alone you want them to 

 develop the greatest possible number. 



The healing of wounds must be considered if pruning is 

 to be productive only of good. In order to find how to make 

 cuts that heal the quickest, let us examine into the method 

 of growing a bud or limb. Close to the heart of the limb or 

 trunk a tiny knot will form, and grow out through the wood 

 to the bark. After this the projecting knot will have bark of 

 its own. For our purpose it is correct to think of each bud or 

 twig or limb as a thing in itself, just as though you bored a hole 

 in the parent stock and drove a wooden plug in. When this 

 projecting limb (small or large) is cut off, the part within the 

 parent wood dies. It is not altogether a part of the trunk or 

 the old limb. If the cut is made close to the trunk or old limb, 

 however, bark from it will grow over the end of this dead wood 

 inside, sealing it up entirely and keeping out water, bacteria 

 and fungi spores. 



Bacteria act on an exposed dead stub of a limb exactly as 

 they do on a piece of wood in the soil, disintegrating it and 

 "rotting" it, thus leaving a hollow into the heart of the tree. 

 Part of the dead stub merely dissolves in water, the same as 

 salt will. After the bacteria come the fungi, which tear down 

 (rot) the dead stub with their roots, exactly as the grass and 

 tree roots help pulverize and tame earth. The bark on the 

 parent stock grows over a wound by callousing that is, by 

 forming a swelled ring around it, gradually closing in more and 

 more until the surface is completely covered again. 



The tree can do this healing easily if the wound is close to 

 the surface and parallel with it. It cannot do it if there is a stub ; 

 therefore cut closely. No matter if the surface of the wound 

 is larger, saw right through the thick part at the base, and 

 cut closely. Make a cut underneath the larger limbs, to prevent 

 splitting down, such a split is inexcusable on a fruit tree. Win- 

 ter pruning is bad, because the tender bark freezes and kills 

 back from the edge of the wound, making healing more dim- 

 cult. Every wound larger than a quarter-inch should be covered 

 with some substance that will keep water out and protect 

 the raw surface from the air (preventing evaporation) and 

 kill bacteria and spores of fungi. Raw linseed oil paint is very 



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