136 PRUNING 



Third. Look for poor forks on all the main branches. This 

 is not quite so important as the forks at the main trunk, but it 

 is well worth looking out for, especially with varieties which 

 tend to develop these poor forks frequently, and it does not re- 

 quire a great amount of time. 



Fourth. Take out crossing branches, particularly those 

 which tend to grow back into the centre of the tree where they 

 do not belong. As a rule these crossing branches may be left 

 till the second year without any damage, unless they are very 

 vigorous, and one will find that it requires much less time to do 

 the necessary pruning if only two-year wood is considered. This 

 is really a point of a good deal of practical importance where one 

 has many trees to prune. With a half dozen trees to look after 

 the owner can afford to look at every twig. With a half dozen 

 hundred it is a different matter. 



Fifth. Thin out the rest of the top where this may be 

 needed. Usually there is little left to do after the first four 

 points have been looked after. 



Sixth. Never take out the small shoots so long as they re- 

 main healthy. This rule has few exceptions. If the top is too 

 thick take out small branches with their attached shoots but do 

 not take the shoots alone. 



Bearing Trees. The second illustrative pruning problem we 

 want to discuss is the tree at bearing age. Of course this is 

 going to vary greatly even with different varieties, and still more 

 with different classes of fruits, and yet there are a good many 

 things which are common to all trees. Here is the program : 



First. Preserve the fruit spurs. Never strip a branch of 

 small shoots, whether they are spurs or not. This has already 

 been discussed under the various fruits and also under the 

 young tree and it need not be further elaborated here, but it is 

 of crucial importance. 



Second. Thin the top uniformly by taking out relatively 

 small branches. It is a very common mistake to prune out too 

 large branches while removing the same total amount of wood 

 from the tree. This means that in some parts of the top we have 

 made large holes where there is no wood whatever, while in 



