84 FRUIT-GROWING 



remove a branch, not from the bottom but from 

 the top of the tree, letting in air and light so 

 that the lower, more easily picked branch may- 

 live and produce fruit. 



I once was talking to a farmer who had a 

 neglected orchard of tall apple trees. I sug- 

 gested that if they had been properly pruned 

 in their early years that they would not be so 

 hard to harvest. "I don't know whether that 

 is a good suggestion or not," he said, "I have 

 always noticed that the only good apples I had 

 were in the tops of the trees. ' ' In his case that 

 was entirely true. Those apples in the tops 

 were the only ones which had had a normal 

 amount of light and air. Both of these elements 

 act as a preventive of many fruit diseases and 

 while his trees were choking for want of air at 

 the lower points the disease-producing fungi 

 were causing the lower apples to rot and become 

 ruined with the scab. Had he pruned in such 

 a way that an equal amount of light and air 

 reached all parts of the trees, the fruit on the 

 lower branches would have been just as good 

 as it was in the tops. 



I have said that one of the first reasons for 

 pruning was to remove wood. Paradoxical as 

 it may seem, another reason is to produce wood. 

 Pruning an apple tree in the dormant season 

 promotes the growth of new wood. Frequently 

 by taking advantage of this fact we can cause 



