CHAPTER X 



PRUNING 



No other operation connected with growing an orchard can 

 compare in interest with pruning. It requires more knowledge, 

 more experience, and more thought than any other orchard work. 

 Probably it is also true that we know less about it (or think we 

 know more things that are not so) than about most other opera- 

 tions. Yet books have been written and might still be written 

 about what is known of the art and science of pruning. 



FIG. 46. A young apple tree started on the wrong road by bad pruning. All the fruit spurs 

 have been removed from the lower branches. 



In the present chapter we shall attempt merely to under- 

 stand a few of the most universally accepted general principles 

 and to bring out some of the practical details of pruning our 

 common orchard fruits. 



How Trees Bear their Fruit. One of the first things for the 

 would-be pruner to acquire is a thorough understanding of the 

 way in which the different orchard trees bear their fruit. Many 

 a good apple tree has had its usefulness curtailed because the 

 man who pruned it did not realize the vital importance of the 



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