32 ORCHARD FRUIT TREE CULTURE 



We would lay considerable stress on the fact that pruning requires 

 intelligence of a very high order ; there must be considered reason 

 behind every cut made, for a serious error can easily be made 

 which would be exceedingly difficult to undo at any future date. 

 A friend of the writer's went into a new house and garden in the 

 autumn of '21, and immediately made a havoc among the trees 



FIG. 1 8. Two-year Trained Apple on Paradise Stock 



" because he understood it was the right thing to cut them every 

 year." 



We believe in early pruning, not less for younger than for older 

 trees. The autumn is better than the spring for this important 

 work. This may, or may not, be a debatable point we scarcely 

 think it is for the determining time factor is the sap of the tree. 

 In young trees, this " goes back " (whatever this may mean) more 

 tardily than in older trees and becomes active earlier in the spring, 

 and we consider that the sooner it can be attended to after the fall 



