36 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



bushes generally need pruning for two or three years after being 

 planted, especially if the soil is rich and the growth strong. 

 Pruning should be done in March, before the sap starts after the 

 winter rest; but if the frost is out of the ground earlier, the 

 pruning should be done earlier. When branches get old they 

 should be cut out and new shoots be allowed to grow. Currants 

 like plenty of food, therefore manure the plants well. 



Discussion. 



Mr. Hoyt replied to a question upon clearing trees of dead and 

 useless wood during the fall and winter months, that it could be 

 done, so far as dead wood extended, but if living wood is cut too 

 early, the stub is apt to die down, making it necessary to cut 

 again just before the growing season opens. 



The next question was : Should young trees always be staked 

 when transplanted? Mr. Hoyt said that while it is better to 

 stake them, it is not always necessary to do so. 



Is it best to pinch the tops of raspberries when three or four 

 feet high, or let them grow as they will, and prune in the spring? 

 Mr. Hoyt thought it best to let the plants grow and prune off the 

 tops to three or four feet in March. He said the pinching caused 

 laterals to start out below the point of pinching, and these laterals 

 being of late growth were tender and apt to be injured by the 

 frost of winter, therefoi-e it is better to let the buds remain 

 dormant through the summer. When cut back in March the buds 

 will then come out strong, and develop healthy fruit stems. The 

 fruit is produced on this new spring growth. He would advise 

 those having raspberries or blackberries to experiment on a few 

 plants and note the results. 



The relative earliness of fruit production, from scions set in the 

 limbs of trees or in the stump or roots, being asked about, Mr. 

 Hoyt said fruit would come sooner from a top-grafted tree, unless 

 a mass of suckers started up around its base, in which case the 

 tree should be thrown away. He had known trees two years old 

 when taken from the nursery, to bear a half-bushel of apples 

 the fourth summer after transplanting into the orchard. 



The pruning needed after a young orchard is established would 

 be simple. Never allow a limb to grow cross-wise of the tree; 

 prune so as to cause branches to grow outward, and cut out all 

 suckers as soon as they appear. That is about all there is to it. 



