PRUNING 217 



ought to receive a severe pruning to start more water-sprouts 

 in order that it may be de-horned later. It would be a mistake 

 to de-horn at once, because there are not enough water-sprouts 

 to take care of the food sent up by the roots. And it would also 

 be a mistake to give it only a light pnming. 



If the top is poor and high with plenty of low-growing 

 water-sprouts then the thing to do is to de-horn at once and 

 start a new top. 



A common mistake among those who undertake this sort of 

 work is to de-horn trees which are really too good for such 

 drastic treatment. If a tree has a reasonably good top it is 

 much better to do the w^ork gradually, taking several years, 

 perhaps, to accomplish the desired result. The owner thus 

 secures some returns from his orchard each year, and still the 

 trees are improving all the time. 



Having decided on which of these three types of treatment 

 is to be meted out to our tree w'e begin the pruning. A safe 

 rule to follow is to go over the entire top and take out all dead 

 wood (Fig. 99). Frequently, far too frequently, this is all 

 that the tree Avill stand, and in any case one can judge better 

 what more ought to be done after the dead wood has been taken 

 out. Next should follow diseased branches. Branches affected 

 with blight should come out altogether. Those having such 

 diseases as European canker may be kept for a few years if 

 they seem to be needed and either taken out altogether, later 

 on, or the diseased areas treated, if the branches are too im- 

 portant to be sacrificed. 



In most cases Avhere these old trees are not de-homed it is 

 very important to lower the top more or less. This can be done 

 gradually, year by year, taking out relatively small branches 

 from the top of the tree, and in a surprisingly short time the tree 

 will be down where it can be sprayed and picked w'ith comfort 

 and dispatch and yet there will have been little loss in the crop. 

 The King tree shown in Figure 93 is a good example of this. 

 Before the work of renovation began it stood forty feet high 

 with the bearing wood at the ends of the branches and most 

 of the fruit borne so high that the cost of spraying and picking 



