4 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 320 



One lot was left unpruned; a second was lightly pruned in the early spring; a 

 third was given similar pruning in the spring followed by a light pruning in the 

 summer soon after terminal buds were formed; and a fourth was given moderately 

 severe pruning. The summer pruning was discontinued after a few years and the 

 third group of trees pruned exactly like the second group. The pruning was all 

 of the same type, differing only in amount, and consisted in removing weak and 

 interfering branches, mostly small ones. No heading back was practiced. 



Figure 1. Unpruned King tree at the ages of three and seven years, illustrating the natural 

 balancing of the tree as it grows. The left side of the tree, weaker in the early years, has become 

 the stronger. Moderate corrective pruning would have produced a better balanced tree. 



Clark Orchard. 1 — This orchard was planted in 1897. The rows included in the 

 pruning test were Rhode Island Greening, Wealthy, Mcintosh, and Ben Davis. 

 They have been under various kinds of soil management and fertilization through 

 the years and are vigorous, productive, and fairly uniform. There is one row of 

 eleven trees of each variety. 



The trees had had in recent years a moderate or rather heavy pruning, and in 

 the spring of 1932 about one half of the trees of each variety (omitting a few re- 

 plants and trees not true to name) were left unpruned and the other trees pruned 

 much as in previous years. This treatment was continued in 1933. Thus there 

 are only two years' results in this orchard but the yields for eight years before 

 are available for comparison. 



Block 0. — This orchard was planted in 1889 and contained originally sixty 

 trees, 15 trees each of Rhode Island Greening, Roxbury Russet, Baldwin, and 

 I rravenstein. P ive trees have died or are in very bad condition. The orchard 



'Credit f>>r the won in t h ; s orchard is dm- ( ). C. Roberts of this depart incut, under whose direc- 

 tion t lie work was tarried on. 



