PRUNING 81 



fusion already existing on the subject an ex- 

 periment station professor now comes out with 

 a bulletin in which he shows that we have not 

 even understood the term "pruning" or what 

 it really meant. To quote from his 

 introduction : 



"In the first place it seems desirable to dis- 

 tinguish clearly between pruning and what may 

 be termed training. Many, if not most, grow- 

 ers fail to draw the line between them, and 

 here their troubles begin. They often train 

 their trees very well and then think that be- 

 cause they have been trained they are likewise 

 pruned, when, as a matter of fact, little or prac- 

 tically no priming has been done. Training has 

 to do primarily with form, with shape. Prun- 

 ing has to do primarily with function, with ac- 

 tivity. Training determines how the tree 

 looks; pruning determines what the tree does." 

 Webster defines pruning as follows: "The act 

 of trimming or removing what is superfluous. ' ' 

 But then Webster was not supposed to be a 

 technical fruit-grower, so let us see what Bailey 

 says about it. Here is his definition: "The 

 methodical removal of parts of a plant with 

 the object to improve it in some respect for 

 the purposes of the cultivator." 



But go back to this recent bulletin that I 

 mentioned. After the author clearly indicated 

 that pruning is really not pruning at all but 



