544 



FARM, ORCHARD, DAIRY AND GARDEN. 



that pear trees should not be pruned at 

 all — an extreme which no experienced 

 cultivator will indorse — it is worthy of 

 inquiry whether unpruned trees do not 

 exhibit a better fruit-bearing record than 

 those which have been subject to the 

 highest pruning codes. How far the 

 proverbial liability of the pear to suffer 

 from blight may be due to the interfer- 

 ence and disarrangement of growths 

 caused by summer pruning, it may not 

 be possible to decide, but the tendency 

 to late fall growths, and the consequent 

 immaturity of wood which is thereby 

 encouraged, is well known to be of much 

 injury, and greatly conducive to disease. 

 Perhaps no advice that has been given is 

 so fruitful a cause of failure and disap- 

 pointment in fruit culture as that em- 

 bodied in the brief sentence, " Prune in 

 summer for fruit." 



The physiological principle upon which 

 this advice is based is that which recog- 

 nizes barrenness in fruit trees as the result 

 of an undue amount of wood growth, 

 and that, in accordance with acknowl- 

 edged laws, any process that will secure 

 a reduction of growth will induce fruitful- 

 ness. The removal of foliage from a 

 tree in active growth will weaken its 

 vitality, by causing a corresponding 

 check to the extension of roots, but the 

 removal of the mere points of strong 

 shoots has no palpable effect in checking 

 root growth, the roots proceed to grow, 

 and the sap seeks outlets in other chan- 

 nels, forming new shoots, which in no 

 way increase the fruitfulness of the plant. 



While it may be confidently stated 

 that, as a practical rule, easily followed, 

 and of general application, summer prun- 

 ing for fruit cannot be recommended 

 except as an expedient rarely successful, 

 it is also true that there are certain 

 periods in the growth of a plant when 

 the removal of a portion of the shoots 

 would tend to increase the development 

 of the remaining buds, without causing 

 them to form shoots. For example, if 

 the growing shoots of a pear tree are 

 shortened or pruned by removing one- 

 third of their length, say, toward the end 

 of June, the check will immediately cause 

 the remaining buds on these shoots to 

 push into growth and produce a mass of 

 twigs as far removed as they be from 

 fruit-producing branches. Again, if this 



pruning is delayed until August, and the 

 season subsequently proves to be warm 

 and dry, the probabilities are that the: 

 remaining buds will develop into short 

 spur-like shoots, from which blossom buds 

 may in course of time be formed; but if 

 the season continues wet, and mild and 

 growing weather extends late into the 

 fall, these same shoots will be lengthened 

 into weakly, slender growths, which never 

 mature, and are of no use whatever. 

 There is no certainty as to the proper 

 time to summer prune, because no two 

 seasons are precisely alike, and trees vary 

 intheir vigor from year to year; and yet . 

 this uncertain, indefinite, and constantly 

 experimental procedure is the basis upon 

 which the advice to "prune in summer 

 for fruit" is founded. 



The pear tree, in fact, requires very 

 little pruning, and that only so far as may 

 be necessary to regulate branches in either 

 of two exigencies; In the first place,, 

 when the young tree is placed in its per- 

 manent position in the orchard, its roots 

 will be greatly disturbed and many of 

 them destroyed ; it will, therefore, be ex- 

 pedient in this exigency to abridge the 

 branches, so as to restore the balance of 

 growth that existed between the roots and 

 branches previous to removal. 



This pruning at transplanting has its. 

 opponents on the the theoretical grounds 

 that, as the formation of roots is depend- 

 ent upon the action of leaves, it must fol- 

 low that the more branches and leaves left 

 upon a plant the more rapidly will new 

 roots be produced ; but there is one im- 

 portant element overlooked in this rea- 

 soning, namely, the loss of sap by evap- 

 oration, which speedily exhausts the plant, 

 while it has no active roots to meet the 

 demand. The proper practice is to re- 

 duce the branches so as to give the roots 

 the preponderance, and many kinds of 

 trees can only be successfully removed by 

 cutting the stem off close to the ground. 



If the tree has been pruned close back 

 at planting, the first summer will develop 

 the foundation for a well-balanced, sym- 

 metrical plant, but as this res alt depends 

 upon a good start, it is well to keep an 

 eye on the young growths during the first 

 season, and if any of the shoots appear to 

 be developing to the detriment of others 

 equally necessary for future branches, the 

 points of such shoots be pinched off, but 



