88 FRUIT-GROWING 



tance will be from thirty inches to three feet 

 as this allows for a development of strong 

 branches extending over a foot or eighteen 

 inches of the top of the stub, which later be- 

 comes the trunk of the tree. It is not desirable 

 to have the main branches originate closer than 

 eighteen inches from the ground. In spite of 

 the advantages of low heads other things must 

 be considered and if the branches come too 

 close to the surface of the ground it will be an 

 almost impossible task to protect them from 

 the attacks of rabbits. 



The two-year-old trees as they come from the 

 nursery are usually more or less branched. 

 The branches may be well arranged in some- 

 thing like the way that we would like to have 

 them or they may be simply a cluster of weak 

 shoots from which we can not expect much in 

 the way of foundation limbs for future trees. 

 Consequently the pruning of such a specimen 

 becomes much more of a problem than it was in 

 the case of the one-year-old tree. Also at this 

 time we should decide whether we desire our 

 tree to be of the "leader" type or whether we 

 want it to grow into a tree with an open top. 



The leader type of tree consists of a central 

 stem with a whorl of branches originating 

 about two feet from the ground and with other 

 whorls of branches variously spaced on the 

 trunk. Such a method of pruning certainly de- 



