PRUNING YOUNG TREES 



209 



gated, or a combination of stimuli which results in forc- 

 ing rank wood growth, producing heavy, large leaves, 

 but little or no fruit. The remedy is to remove the 

 stimulus, whatever it may be, and prune several times a 

 year. 



Summer pruning for such trees will come probably 

 more about the time very young trees are pruned : that 

 is, along in June. 

 At each time when 

 the terminal 

 growth threatens 

 to become exces- 

 sively long, it 

 should be cut back 

 and the trees 

 thinned out some- 

 what. The follow- 

 ing spring a little 

 more thinning and 

 p run ing-out m a y 

 be done to advan- 

 tage. The applica- 

 tion of summer 

 pruning to these 

 trees should be 

 largely a distribu- 

 tion of the pruning 

 over two periods, 

 thus avoiding an 

 excessive pruning. 

 Only in very rare 

 cases can one ex- 

 pect direct results 

 from such pruning. Results will come indirectly in bring- 

 ing the trees back to their normal balance. It often be- 

 comes necessary to reduce the amount of tillage or irrigation 

 given such trees, and in cases where the growth is ab- 



FIG. 173 



FRUIT SPURS DUE TO GOOD PRUNING 

 Five-year Yellow Newtown apple tree rather 

 heavily pruned each year until last, when no winter 

 pruning was done. When compared with Fig. 171, 

 a tree of the same age and variety, it shows how 

 light, as opposed to heavy, pruning tends to throw 

 a tree into bearing. Note the many fruit spurs on 

 the two-year-old wood (enlarged in frontispiece). 

 During the preceding season a large part of the 

 energies of the tree was devoted to fruit spur 

 formation. 



