PRUNING 59 



(3) Even if it does not favour the formation of fresh shoots, 

 does it favour wood-formation in the stem and older branches, 

 the tree thus becoming heavier than an unpruned one ? 



(4) Does pruning increase the number of new shoots formed ? 

 To each of these questions the answer which would generally 



be given would be in the affirmative : yet to each of them actual 

 experiment answers, either with a direct negative, or with a much 

 qualified affirmative. 



Of the plots of dwarf apple trees originally planted at Woburn, 

 eleven were devoted to experiments on branch-pruning. Each 

 of the plots contained eighteen trees, six of three different varie- 

 ties, Bramley's Seedling, Cox's Orange Pippin and Potts' Seedling ; 

 whilst some of the experiments were repeated with Stirling 

 Castle, and, in later years, with Gascoyne's Scarlet Seedling. In 

 some of these plots the trees were left unpruned, or the amount 

 of pruning practised was very slight ; in others the pruning was 

 moderate, consisting in the removal of about one-third of the 

 length of new wood formed during the season; whilst in others, 

 again, the pruning was hard, about two-thirds of the annual 

 growth being removed. 



As to the general results, a good idea may be formed from the 

 photographs of representative trees taken from the hard-pruned 

 and unpruned plots, as shown in Fig. 10. No doubt can exist 

 that the absence of pruning has resulted in an increase in the 

 general size of the tree as compared with that of its hard- pruned 

 neighbour : the moderately pruned trees (of which, unfortunately, 

 no photographs were taken at the same time) were intermediate 

 in size between the two shown here. The variety selected for 

 illustration is Bramley, twelve years after the trees had been 

 planted ; but any of the other varieties might have been taken, 

 and would have told the same tale. 



Coming to actual measurement : The size of the trees as given 

 by their height, the spread of the branches and the girth of stem 

 (see p. 20), is given below, the values being the means for all 

 the varieties examined, and being those obtained in 1904, ten 

 years after they had been planted (V, 114; VII, 13). Together 

 with these are given values based on the weights of the trees 

 when some of them were removed in the following winter. 



Pruning. 



Tree-size .... 106 100 82 



Tree-weight . . . .120 100 84 



