14 



MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 320 



As shown in Table 10, fruit from the sprayed Mcintosh trees graded out better 

 from the pruned than from the unpruned trees. There was little difference with 

 the fruit from the dusted trees, but the trend is the same. There was less difference 

 in the case of Rhode Island Greening though there is a similarity. As shown later 

 color was important in determining grade, and this affected the Mcintosh but 

 not the Rhode Island Greening. 



The results of grading fruit from the old trees, shown in Table 11, are more 

 consistent. Apples from the pruned trees graded out better than those from the 

 unpruned trees. There is no distinct evidence that heavy pruning produced more 

 high-grade and fewer low-grade apples than light pruning, but the comparison 

 between light pruning and no pruning is uniformly in favor of light pruning. It 

 should be noted that this table shows results from the crop of 1932 after the 

 experiment had continued for five years. 



Table 11. — Effect of pruning on grade and size of fruit — Block O, 1932. 



Percentage of Aoples 

 In Each Grade 



Percentage of Apples in Each Size, 

 first and second grades only 



Pruning 

 Treatment 



Heavily pruned 

 Lightly pruned 



Unpruned 



Unpruned 

 (thick trees) . . 



First 

 Grade 



15.5 

 14.6 



6.5 



9.5 



Second 

 Grade 



32.9 

 30.3 



28.2 



27 4 



Third 

 Grade 



47.7 

 48.6 

 54 7 



45 3 



Baldwin 



3.9 



6.5 



10.6 



17.9 



3>4 



Inches 



7.5 

 4.3 

 1.2 



3 



Inches 



15.8 

 13.0 

 4 1 



4.0 



Inches 



15.6 

 13.5 

 7 1 



13.9 



■2Y 2 Under 

 Inches 2J^ 

 Inches 



Rhode Island Greening 



9.0 

 11.3 

 19.4 



15.4 



0.6 



2.7 

 2.9 



1.0 



It is commonly believed that pruning increases the size of apples. Tables 

 10 and 11 give some evidence of how the trees in these experiments behaved in 

 this respect. The figures are given in percentages of the total crop, but the third 

 grade and culls were not sized so the totals do not add up to 100. Comparisons 

 can be made of the pruned and unpruned trees for both lots of apples were sized 

 the same. 



The trees in the Clark Orchard were included in a comparison of spraying 

 and dusting and the sizing is given for each in Table 10. The figures indicate that 

 with Mcintosh the pruned trees gave somewhat larger apples especially on the 

 dusted trees, but there were no consistent differences with the Rhode Island 

 Greenings. 



Table 1 1 shows that pruning increased the size of the apples on these old trees 

 considerably and quite consistently with the three varieties grown. Two un- 

 pruned Baldwin trees had especially thick tops and the fruit from these trees 

 was sized separately. There seems to be no indication that the apples from these 

 thick trees were smaller than those on the other unpruned trees. 



