88 Till-: AMERICAN APPLE ORCHARD 



occurring in the latter part of the season makes less 

 difference in the succeeding crop than a similar 

 amount of defoliation occurring earlier. 



It can be easily understood, in the light of these 

 facts, why spraying is much more valuable in spring 

 than in late summer. It will be seen further that, 

 while spraying may serve as a protection for the pres- 

 ent crop, it serves an equally important purpose in 

 assisting the developmert of next year's crop. 



The majority of fruit growers have accepted the 

 principle that the size of their trees is a matter beyond 

 their control. All they hope to do is to plant trees far 

 enough apart so that they will never crowd one an- 

 other, or else to cut out every alternate row when 

 branches begin to intermingle. If a man adopts this 

 view there is little more to be said. If, however, he 

 rejects it — as many progressive fruit growers are now 

 doing — it is necessary to adopt in the permanent sys- 

 tem of pruning some method of repression whereby the 

 branches may be periodically shortened in. This is a 

 somewhat delicate and difficult matter, but amounts in 

 reality only to an extension of the heading-in process 

 already discussed on page 83. In spite of its greater 

 difficulty this system is likely to be more widely 

 adopted as fast as men learn by experience how to 

 manage it. 



The head of the tree should be kept open for two 

 purposes — first, to allow the sun to color the fruit ; and 

 second, to aid in the formation of fruit buds. The first 

 of these considerations is sufficiently obvious ; the sec- 

 ond is even more important. It can be observed any- 

 where that fruit sets only in the top and on the outside 

 of thick-topped trees. This is because fruit buds cannot 

 be formed where the sunshine does not penetrate. 



