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Chapter IV. 

 PEUNING FRUIT TEEES. 



H. GOUBLEY, PHOFBSSOE OF HOHTICULTTJRE, NEW HAMPSHIEB STATE 

 COLLEGE, DURHAM, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



The pruning of fruit trees is a subject which is as old as 

 fruit growing itself. Definite and elaborate systems of prun- 

 ing trees were in vogue centuries before such practices as 

 thinning and spraying were heard of. Yet in spite of the 

 antiquity of the practice it is only in recent years that well- 

 conducted and thorough experiments have thrown light upon 

 the underlying principles involved. At present the views of 

 competent fruit growers are somewhat at variance as to how 

 much pruning should be done, ranging all the way from none 

 whatever to very heavy cutting, and also there is no uni- 

 versal agreement as to the best form into which a tree should 

 be trained. 



Pruning may be defined as the art or science of cutting away 

 a portion of the plant in order to improve its shape, to in- 

 crease its fruitfulness, or to repair damage. It should be 

 recognized that training and pruning a tree are for different 

 purposes. There are not many who would not attempt to 

 train a tree for the first few years in order so to distribute 

 the branches as to make the tree capable of carrying the 

 maximum load of fruit when it becomes mature as well as to 

 secure " the ideal " which the grower has in mind^ Neverthe- 

 less, it is easily possible to overemphasize its importance, for 

 the object of pruning a tree is certainly not to produce a 

 beautiful or shapely object, but rather to make a tree well 

 balanced and capable of carrying a heavy load and having the 

 crop so distributed as to give it maximum size and color. 

 It is not uncommon in some sections to have a ton and a 



