PRUNING BEARING APPLE TREES 5 



was originally used for a fertilizer experiment, and a report of this work, in which 

 the orchard was described, has been made. 8 The trees had been moderately 

 pruned each year and had borne well before 1927 when trees were selected for 

 three types of pruning treatment. The trees included in each treatment were 

 selected so that each lot was comparable to the others. 



The pruning treatments were planned as follows: (1) Unpruned trees, no prun- 

 ing to be done except to remove dead and dying branches if and when they 

 appeared. (2) Lightly pruned trees, to be pruned lightly or moderately, removing 

 weak, slow-growing wood. These trees were pruned about the same as most good 

 orchardists would prune. (3) Heavily pruned trees, to be pruned in the same 

 manner as (2) but more severely. More wood was removed from these trees in 

 the earlier years than in the later years. 



Figure 2. Unpruned Mcintosh tree at two and seven years of age. A well-balanced tree has 

 grown. Some of the weaker wood could be removed without lessening the quantity or quality 

 of the crop. 



The differential fertilizer treatment was discontinued and the whole orchard 

 given nitrate of soda at the rate of about 300 pounds per acre each year. The 

 orchard has been strip cultivated, about one-third of the surface being kept culti- 

 vated during the early part of the season and then a cover crop sown. The growth 

 of the cover crop has been in most years rather poor. The trees are now large 

 for the area but are not seriously crowded. They have all borne very well, the 

 maximum crop of 1930 amounting to nearly 1500 bushels from less than sixty 

 trees. 



'Shaw, J. K. Experiments in Soil Management and Fertilization of Orchards. Mass. Agr. Expt. 

 Sta. Bui. 209. 1922. 



