84 THE AMERICAN APPLE ORCHARD 



bending down in midsummer will be again advisable, 

 though after the third year this practice should usually 

 be abandoned. 



7. Each succeeding winter or spring the annual 

 growth of the previous year will be cut back from one- 

 third to two-thirds its entire length, and this practice 

 will be followed indefinitely. Under proper manage- 

 ment, however, a part or all of this heading-in may 

 profitably be transferred to the summer season, being 

 given some time in July. The exact time and extent 

 of this summer pruning will depend on many local 

 conditions, so that this part of the method should be 

 adopted only under the eye of a competent and judi- 

 cious man. In any case the work may be reduced to 

 one annual pruning after the fourth or fifth year. 



8. Even with the drastic cutting back here out- 

 lined the spread of the tree will go on increasing, and 

 it is still only a question of time when it will outgrow 

 the limited space allotted to it. This result may be 

 considerably postponed, or even indefinitely put off, by 

 introducing a system of renewals, somewhat after the 

 manner practiced in the pruning of grapes. If in the 

 course of time one of the secondary, tertiary or qua- 

 ternary branches be removed, the work may be begim 

 all over again from that point, a new branch with all 

 its ramifications being redeveloped. This renewal 

 work needs to be done with great care, but nature 

 sometimes ofifers special opportunities for it through 

 the breaking of a branch by ice or other accident. 



A word ought to be said just here regarding water 

 sprouts — the soft long upright shoots which form in 

 the midst of the tree top, especially in old and neg- 

 lected trees. Most horticulturists seem to regard this 

 as the most iniquitous form of tree growth. Professor 



