APPLES 



2S3 



lated to produce a great number of leaves 

 which assimilate sap. This elaborated 

 food passes back through the inner bark 

 near the newly made cut and the wound 

 quickly callouses and heals because it 

 thus has access to an abundant supply of 

 food. 



The notion prevails that a wound of 

 any size will heal, but the major 

 ity of wounds over three inches in diani 

 eter do not heal — decay sets in, foUoweil 

 by wood-destroying fungi, and these, with 

 the action of the weather, are followeil 

 by rotten wood, a hollow branch and a 

 diseased tree. The Geneva station is now 

 digging out an apple orchard in which 

 the centers of the trees were removed 

 some 15 or 18 years ago. The trees 

 might have borne crops for two or three 

 decades longer but practically all an 

 worthless from the results of the cuttins 

 out of large limbs. The life of a tree 

 is endangered whenever a large branch 

 is removed, and such an amputation 

 should be made only under dire neces- 

 sity. Tree lovers shudder at the ghastly 

 wounds and mutilated trees in the aver- 

 age orchard. The professional "hewers 

 of wood" who call themselves "tree 

 pruners" are responsible for much of the 

 dreadful slaughter seen in orchards. 



It is presumed that every fruit-grower 

 has learned from observation or experi- 

 ence that one of the secrets of the heal- 

 ing of large wounds is to cut close to 

 the trunk, and no matter how large a 

 wound may be it is better than leaving 

 a projecting stub. The chances for heal- 

 ing with a large wound are materially 

 increased by a coating of thick lead paint 

 to protect the cut surface from evapora 

 tion and moisture. It is a waste of time 

 to treat wounds less than two inches in 

 diameter. 



U. P. HEDRIfTC. 



Geneva. N. Y. 



(hie Spring and T«<i Siiiiimer I'riiiiiii^s 



The accompanying photographs illut; 

 trate a method of pruning eiuployed h\ 

 an orchard company near North Yakima 

 Washington. 



The method consists of pruning younu' 

 trees once before the buds i)ut out in the 

 spring, once about the last of May or 



rig. 1. Tree One and ()ne-llalf Years After Re- 

 moving from the Nursery. The photograph 

 was taken about the first of September, the 

 second year of growth in the orchard. The 

 tree was pruned early in March, early in 

 June, and was photographed Just before prun- 

 ing early In September of the same year. 



Tlie Siiuie Tree After the Second Sum- 

 mer Pruning, September 1st. 



