82 FRUIT-GROWING 



something else, and after he has us all tangled 

 up about work that we thought we were be- 

 ginning to understand, he proceeds to write a 

 very excellent and perfectly orthodox bulletin 

 on the subject of pruning. Personally I am un- 

 able to see that he has carried his distinction 

 between pruning and training into his actual 

 practice and I think that he, like too many 

 growers, has overlooked the fact that the pro- 

 duction of leaves and wood is a perfectly proper 

 "function." In pruning, of course, we influ- 

 ence the production of wood tissue — in fact 

 this is the chief end gained by the practice, al- 

 though later the production or removal of wood 

 tissues may have an indirect effect on the pro- 

 duction of apples. 



Pruning is a perfectly natural process for it 

 is a part of the life experience of all trees. The 

 giant sequoias of California have trunks tow- 

 ering high in the air without a branch, but 

 those clean trunks were pruned just as certainly 

 as my apple trees were pruned last spring — 

 and will be pruned again. The young forest 

 tree did not start and continue as a single 

 whip with a tuft of leaves at the top. Every 

 little seedling that you ever saw had side 

 branches on it if it was more than a year or two 

 old. Left to shift for itself that little branched 

 seedling would, if grown in a forest, produce a 

 tall straight trunk from which all vestige of the 



