220 FRUIT FARMING 



The part we want restored is the roots ; and the tree 

 will do this more effectively if all the shoots are left 

 unpruned the first season, so as to give a greater 

 amount of leaf surface early in the season. The roots 

 formed under those conditions are fibrous, which is 

 just the sort desired. I have found that trees which 

 were left unpruned the first season had many more 

 fibrous roots than those which were pruned the first 

 season, when both were lifted and replanted two years 

 after. 



I think we can safely say the balance will be 

 restored the first season ; then if the shoots are all 

 cut back to good wood buds, which will probably be 

 within four or five inches of the base, good strong 

 growths will be produced, which will lay the founda- 

 tion for the future branches of the tree, and far 

 stouter than those on trees pruned the first year of 

 planting. 



For the last ten years I have seen a great number 

 of fruit trees planted in the Evesham district, and I 

 should think quite nine-tenths of them have not been 

 pruned until a year after planting. I have asked some 

 of the growers to prune a few the first season for 

 comparison, but in no case have the trees done so 

 well as those not pruned until a year after planting. 

 These men judge by results ; and when they have 

 once proved a system to be best, no amount of 

 literature will turn them. 



I have been looking at some Apple trees this week 

 which were planted two years ago ; some of them 

 were planted in November, and the others in February, 

 and all were pruned back in March of the same 

 season. Those planted in November produced shoots 



