102 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF PRUNING 



niiidcrate-sized trees are often very fruitful, they are not 

 necessarily so. Many instances might be mentioned of trees 

 \vhich have grown both very rapidly and very large, and 

 yet have come into bearing young and been remarkably 

 fruitful, perhaps each year, for a long series of years. Such 

 cases, probably without exception, will be found to be due 

 to rational management from the start or, at least, from the 

 time when the fruit grower began such management. 



94. Apple pruning investigations.*— Four years ago West Virginia 

 Experiment Station began a test involving various amounts of dor- 

 mant pruning in one orchard. The following spring this experiment 

 was greatly extended to include six orchards in various parts of the 

 state and r>l:j trees ranging from one to 25 years of age. In spite 

 of unfavoralile circumstances some features stand forth clearly and 

 seem to warrant a preliminary report. 



We will group the orchards and discuss two phases of the proj- 

 ect; namely, the effect of amount of pruning and season of pruning 

 upon vigor, growth and fruitfulness. In most cases the following 

 series of plots were obtained : t. Heavy dormant pruning. 2. Mod- 

 erate dormant pruning. .3. Light, or corrective dormant pruning. 

 4. Heavy dormant and early summer pruning. .5. Moderate dormant 

 and early summer pruning. 6. Early summer pruning. 7. Repeated 

 summer pruning. 8. Midsummer pruning. 



The early summer prunings were made at first during the last 

 week of May, but for the last two years were made about June 15. 

 The midsummer pruning was made from July 1 to July 15. The 

 re[)eated summer pruning was simply a combination of the early 

 and midsummer prunings. 



95. Amount of dormant pruning.— Where varying amounts of dor- 

 mant pruning alone were considered, we would expect that the 

 heavier the pruning the longer and hea\ier would be the new growth 

 (83). This was invariably the case. The question then arose as to 

 whether the average length and diameter of the new growth is a 

 true index of vigor. We are constrained to believe that this is not 

 ;dways the case, at least upon small trees. 



The heavy pruning greatly reduced the number of buds and con- 

 sequently reduced the number of shoots which started. It seems 

 reasonable to l)elieve that, though fewer in number, the shoots of 

 the heavily pruned trees actually measure up as great as those of 

 the lightly pruned back, perhaps even greater. To test this point, 

 two blocks were selected in one orchard, and one was heavily 

 pinned, while the other was lightly pruned, ,^nnual measurements 

 were made of the new growth and the prunings. 



" W. H. Alderman in Proceedings of tlie Society Cor Horticultural Science, 

 191S, Page 54. 



