changed growers viex-js on pruning very much. We knew very little about the 

 relation of growth of twigs or branches and the formation of blossom buds 

 or to production of the time of blossom bud formation. We didn't talk about 

 weak and vigorous wood and its effect on fruit set. I think most of the 

 pruning was done just for the sake of pruning and many growers pruned a good 

 deal more severely than they do today. For the period of 1930 to 1940 the 

 practice was to prune apple trees very little the first 5 to 6 years after 

 plantiiig. Unpruncd trees came into bearing at an early age but experience 

 shov/ed later that the frame v/ork on such trees was not as strong as on trees 

 where a few branches were selected to form the framework of the tree. 



Today pruning is done partly to fit the trees to the equipment and 

 partly to improve the quality of the fruit. Weak, low-productive wood is 

 removed and trees are headed back and the top centers thinned out to make 

 spraying and harvesting easier. 



The development of compressed air pruners and elevated platforms from 

 which pruning can be done has been quite a help in speeding up the pruning 

 operation. 



Brush removal v^as a slov; and tedious taslc thirty years ago. The brush 

 was piclced up by hand and placed on a wagon or drag and hauled out of the 

 orchard. Practically all of the hauling v;as done with horses. The drag 

 provided the most economical v;ay to remove brush. A simple way to unload 

 the brush from the drag was to tie one end of a long rope to the back end 

 of the drag and then string the rope along the bottom of the drag and place 

 the remainder of the rope in a coil at the front. When the drag was loaded 

 and hauled to the unloading place the rope was throv/n over the top of the 

 brush, a horse hitched to the loose end and the brush rolled off. 



Later the brush burner became popular, then the buckrake on the front 

 end of a tractor and more recently the large rotary mower. All of these 

 pieces of equipment have helped to simplify the removal of brush from the 

 orchard. 



Hormones 



The idea of having a material that could be sprayed on trees in the spring 

 to thin the fruit and in the fall to stick the fruit on was not even dreamed 

 about thirty years ago. It would have been thought fantastic. The discovery in 

 1939 that naphthaleneacetic acid and some related compounds would delay the 

 preharvest drop of Mcintosh, saved the apple growers in New England many 

 millions of dollars and no doubt was partly responsible for the continued 

 heavy planting of the Mcintosh variety. No orchard practice has ever been 

 accepted as a general practice in so short a time as the use of stop-drop 

 materials. Prior to the discovery of these hormones growers were resigned to 

 picking from 25 to 50 per cent of the Mcintosh crop off the ground. Today 

 most growers hand pick at least 907o of their crop of this variety. These 

 materials have played a part in the increased yield per acre by permitting the 

 grower to harvest a larger percentage of his crop. 



