36 beginners' guide to fruit growing 



tree should be still more severely pruned. The 

 least that should be done with any ordinary nurs- 

 ery tree is to cut back the top and all side branches 

 so as to leave only stubs i to 3 inches in length. 

 In planting one-year-old trees of most sorts it is 

 still better to cut off absolutely all branches and 

 further to cut back the main stem to about the point 

 where the head is to be formed. Something more 

 is said about this matter in the chapter on pruning, 

 but it may be noticed here that the most experi- 

 enced fruit growers of the present day shorten in 

 their young trees in this manner very drastically at 

 planting. Young apple trees are commonly headed 

 back to straight sticks 18 inches high, peach, plum 

 and pear trees to 12 inches or even to 6 inches. 

 With healthy i-year-old trees this practice gives 

 the very best results. 



Some further remarks on the selection of nurs- 

 ery stock will be found in Chapter I. 



FALL vs. spring PLANTING 



At this point attention should be given to the 

 common query as to whether fall planting or spring 

 planting is advisable. In the southern states plant- 

 ers often secure a convenient compromise of this 

 question by doing their planting during the winter. 

 In any latitude where there are frequent periods 

 during the winter when the ground contains so 

 little frost that planting may easily be done, the 

 winter is almost the ideal planting time. In north- 

 ern climates spring planting is the common prac- 

 tice, and perhaps the very best general rule is to 

 set out the young trees at the earliest moment in 

 the spring, remembering that the land must first 



