-2- 



treeSj 15 minutes work with a good savi' ;vill go a long v/ay tovrard eliminating from 

 a brushy tangle, the less valuable branches, leaving those parts which have a few 

 years of good production ahead. 



If the problem consisted solely of getting rid of spurs v;hich bear low grade 

 fruit, we might tolerate a brushy tree a little longer. But this unwanted wood is 

 not only producing poor fruit in itself, but is interfering with spraying the mere 

 valuable parts of the tree. For efficient pest control a tree must be reasonably 

 thin. Each branch should have undisputed possession of a definite space. Tv/o or 

 three branches lying on top of one another contribute to poor pest control. And 

 v;hile we are thinning out our bearing trees to permit a good job of spraying, why 

 not do the thinning in terms of the poorer branches? 



Vde have in our storages today too many green, undersized apples. The percen- 

 tage of Fancy fruit in the 19?1 crop -vTrill be larger if every pruner eliminates 

 poor apples at the point of origin — those shaded branches, drooping ends and 

 dovm-ward growing laterals. If the remaining vdnter months bring mild vreather, 

 maybe much of this needed pruning will be accomplished. 



BULK PRUNING IN ALTEKIATE YEARS 



An interesting experiraent is uiider way at the Hood River Experiment Station 

 in Oregon. Quoting from Better Fruit magazine, "Saving money is something that 

 appeals to practically every successful orchard operator. At the Hood River Station, 

 economy tests vrere started some 15 years ago to see what benefits, if any, could be 

 obtained from reduced pruning. Some trees were permitted to go unpruned, while 

 so-called bulk pruning v;as tried on others. Jn the latter, no pr\ining was done that 

 couldn't be done with a saw and this was only on alternate years. Records kept over 

 the 15-year period sho;/ that an average of 15 cuts per year were made in the 

 priincd trees (30 cuts in alternate years). I.Tost interesting development was that 

 there was no significant difference in total jd-elds betv/een pruned and unpruned 

 trees, although the pruned trees did produce better sized fruit. V/here trees arc 

 too crowded, many orchardists endeavor to make up for lack of space by heavy 

 pruning. It appears that it v/ould be better to do less pruning and more tree 

 removal , " 





ARE YIE USING ENOUGH LH:^ 



"According to records begun in 1911, approximately 259,000,000 tons of line and 

 limestone have been used on farms in the United States since that year. In 19^8 

 alone, American farmers used about 2li,000,000 tons. Even on the basis of a 

 conservative estic^ate of an additional net profit of 02.00 to .^3.00 for each ton 

 of lime applied, this would mean an additional ^60, 000, 000 in net profits in 19h^, 

 or about ;;^65 0,000, 000 to ^75^0,000,000 in net profits since 1911." The foregoing 

 statement is taken from Farm Finance. In spite of this impressive record, r.iuch 

 more lii.ie (high magnesium) could and should be used in Massachusetts. 



