A BULLETIN ON ORCHARD PRACTICE. 



PRUNING ORCHARD TREES. 

 BY F. A. HUNTLEY. 



Pruning is indispensable to the profitable cultivation and 

 training of fruit trees and plants. Nature prunes and trains 

 in a crude fashion but does not cultivate. Cultivation breaks 

 into the natural habits of plants, intensifies development, and 

 causes a demand for more intensive processes. Natural con- 

 ditions and artificial methods are wholly different and op- 

 posed in their application. Take fruit trees or plants of any 

 kind, which have been established in variety form by methods 

 of propagation and cultivation, and subject them to natural 

 conditions, namelv that of neglect, and they will usually revert 

 to a lower constitutional vigor than their immediate ancestry. 

 To maintain high standards in cultivated plants it is, there- 

 fore, necessary to fulfill all the requirements of domestication. 



The purpose of this article is to give a few hints on the 

 pruning of orchard trees. Limited space here forbids going 

 at length into details. No attempt is made on the subjects of 

 pruning vineyards and small fruits, as these are matters ex- 

 tensive within themselves. 



There are many reasons why trees and other plants are 

 pruned, and there seems to be a general demand for enlighten- 

 ment upon this important subject. 



Pruning is done on young trees to start an even balance of 

 root and top at the time of transplanting. Trees two years 

 old and over, especially, suffer considerable loss at the roots 

 when taken up for transplanting, and it is usually advisable 

 to reduce the tops to correspond. A reduced root system will 

 not well maintain the vigor of a normally developed top. 



Again it is advisable to prune young trees to establish 

 shapely form. The ideal is the yearling tree to commence 

 with, for it is then possible to shorten the single stem to the 



