PRUNING— THE METHOD 



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very severely and others of equal size and reaching to an equal height 

 left untouched. In such instances those responses, commonly regarded 

 as characteristic of dehorning, usually are limited to the branches that 

 have been cut back. These branches produce watersprouts in abun- 

 dance, but the unpruned branch continues to grow and function as though 

 nothing had been done to upset the usual conditions in the tree. 



Fig. 53. — An old Italian prune tree. All of the main limbs but one were cut back four 

 years before this picture was taken. The unheadcd limb in the center shows little response 

 to the pruning. 



Examples of this occur in old trees of many species that are being top- 

 worked, when the process is being distributed over a period of several 

 years. The influence of the heavy pruning, incident to the top working 

 process, usually is not reflected to any appreciable extent in a changed 

 manner of growth in the ungrafted limbs (see Fig. 53). 



Results Attending the Removal of a Few Large Limbs. — The entire 

 removal of one or more comparatively large limbs, the majority being 

 left unpruned, is a type of pruning in more or less sharp contrast to the 

 bulk heading back just discussed. It may be considered a kind of bulk 

 thinning. Many fruit growers prune in this manner, which possesses 



