PRUNING 



47 



done when the trees are dormant. The best time is 

 in the spring before the buds start. 



Pruning should not, as a rule, be done in winter 

 time. When a wound is made in winter the delicate 

 cambium bark layer is exposed to rough winds and 

 low temperatures and is killed back for some distance 

 between the bark and the wood. Every day of zero 

 weather increases the trouble, and, in spring when 

 growth starts, in- 

 stead of the cambium 

 starting at the cut to 

 heal over the wound, 

 it has to start consid- 

 erably below. Frost- 

 bitten wounds are 

 slow to heal. 



Thousands of 

 fruit - growers inva- 

 riably prune their 

 trees in early spring, 

 not from any well- 

 considered convic- 



THREE-YEAR-OLD PEACH TREE, 

 AFTER BEING PRUNED 



tions as to the effect 

 on the trees, but 

 merely because it is 

 the slack season of the year and therefore most con- 

 venient for pruning operations. These good folks 

 should ask themselves this question : ' ' Do I most 

 need and want wood growth in my orchard, or fruit 

 growth?" 



If the orchard has been recently set, or if it is old 

 and run-down, wood growth may be more desirable 



