March, 19 18 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



79 



less as to the positions of bearing their fruit; 

 some bear close to the main canes, others 

 much farther out on the branches. When 

 the flowers appear is the time to observe the 



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The grape needs a lot of wood cut away, leaving only a 

 few of last year's canes to bear fruit 



position of the fruit buds of each variety so as 

 to know just where to cut in years to come. 



Only one other point need be noted. Since 

 the canes of raspberries and their kin die 

 back to the ground after having produced 

 their crop they may hereafter be cut out as 

 soon as the fruit has been gathered in July 

 or August. 



/""•URRANTS and gooseberries are much 

 ^^ alike in their method of fruit bearing. 

 They usually send up more straight light 

 colored shoots from the crowns each year 

 than are necessary, so all but the two or three 

 strongest that grew in 1917 must be cut out. 

 These shoots will bear no fruit until next 

 year, 1919. Similar shodts which grew in 

 1916 will bear this year and so will older ones, 

 but since they will produce less and less 

 fruit (and this of smaller and smaller size) 

 after they have borne three crops they must 

 be cut out as soon as the third crop has been 

 gathered. In neglected bushes these old 

 stager stems may as well be cut out in March, 

 unless you want to prove how poorly they 

 will bear in comparison with younger ones. 



DROBABLY people are more afraid of 

 *■ pruning grape vines than any other 

 woodly plant. Pruning the grape is far 

 simpler than most of the grape literature 

 would lead us to believe. Remember that 

 each good plump bud is capable of producing 

 a branch which may bear one to five large 

 clusters of grapes. Ordinarily strong home 

 garden vines may be allowed to carry 15 to 

 20 such buds, for a crop of 45 to 60 clusters is 

 load enough for such vines to carry every 

 year. The buds to be left for the 1918 crop 

 should be upon wood which grew in 1917. 

 They may either be scattered along a sturdy 

 cane two or three feet long or upon similar 

 canes shortened to two or three plump buds, 

 the ones lower than these being rubbed off 

 because usually inferior and barren. By 

 bearing these points in mind any one can 

 prune and get fruit. 



UNLIKE in habit as it is, the quince 

 approaches the grape in its manner of 

 fruit bearing; for the buds which grow into 

 branches and leaves in the spring bear flowers 

 also — but at their tips instead of opposite the 

 leaves as in the case of the grape. Pruning 



of the quince therefore is as simple as that 

 of the vine. All that is necessary, after cut- 

 ting out the dead wood, is to cut ofFthe unde- 

 sirable lower growths, also the puny ones in 

 the outer part of the top, and then shorten 

 to about one half the sturdy twigs which grew 

 last year in the top. These will probably bear 

 several times as many blossoms as needed; 

 therefore by midsummer the inferior and 

 misshapen fruits had better be cut ofF. 



'"PHE PEACH and its smooth skinned 

 ■*■ sport, the nectarine, bear blossoms 

 difFerently from any other fruit, i. e., beside the 

 leaf buds on the twigs that grew the previous 

 summer. These fruit buds are easy to rec- 

 ognize, first because of their position and 

 second because they are round and plump 

 whereas the leaf buds are longer and pointed. 

 To be sure on the interior of the tree blossom 

 buds may be found on rather short wiry twigs 

 unaccompanied by leaf buds, but after the 

 eye has once seen the flower buds in normal 

 position there is no mistaking them. These 

 wiry interior twigs need not be pruned at all 

 because usually they die when two or three 

 years old after having borne a few fruits each. 

 If the tree is kept rather open so sun and air 

 may enter freely these fruits should be as well 

 colored and as well flavored as those borne in 

 otherwise more favored parts of the tree. 



The twigs which bear the blossom buds in 

 normal position must be cut back 50 to 75 

 per cent, and the worthless ones removed 

 entirely or shortened to mere stubs. As to 

 the amount any one branch on any one tree 

 shall be shortened, the variety and the be- 

 havior of the tree must decide. The best 

 guides in this respect are first, the relative 

 positions of the fruit buds (either close 

 to the point where the twig started to grow 

 last spring, or farther out); and second, the 

 number of fruits the twig is desired to carry. 

 The peach annually tends to spread farther 

 and farther because the terminal buds on the 

 twigs grow most strongly. This is undesir- 

 able; first, because it makes the tree cover 

 too much space; and second it makes it easier 

 for the branches to break down when loaded 

 with fruit or ice. It is advisable therefore to 

 keep the fruit-bearing area as near the main 

 trunk as possible. 



The easiest way to reduce the number and 

 increase the size of the fruit is to cut off part 

 of the twigs. 



pLUMS, cherries and apricots bear some 

 *■ of their fruits in a way that suggests 

 the normal method of the peach — laterally 

 on the growth of last year — but the great 



majority of specimens are produced on 

 little twigs anywhere and everywhere in the 

 well lighted parts of the tree. These "spurs" 

 as they are called generally carry near their 

 tips clusters of several buds from each of 

 which one or two fruits in the case of apricots 

 and plums to perhaps half a dozen in the case 

 of cherries and as many leaves may develop. 

 The bud at the tip of each spur is usually a 

 wood or branch bud which extends the spur 

 and develops the fruit buds for the following 

 year. One or more of the other buds may 

 develop a branch on the original spur. It is 

 evident that the less pruning done the better. 



A PPLE and pear trees present the most 

 -*-*- peculiar method of fruit bearing. While 

 some varieties in some sections of the country 

 bear part of their fruit laterally on the young 

 growths, the great bulk of the crop is borne on 



This shows how the grape shown above should look after be- 

 ing properly pruned — only the newest canes left 



Apple clusters opening terminally on spurs. These "spurs" 

 must not be broken off young trees 



spurs, but these spurs rarely Dear two years in 

 succession. Furthermore, while the "cluster 

 buds," as the plump ones are called, contain 

 about a dozen blossoms and as many leaves 

 they seldom mature more than one fruit — 

 sometimes two — and unlike the cherry and 

 plum spurs which are fairly straight, apple and 

 pear spurs change direction every year so that 

 when old they have become the most crooked 

 and contorted things imaginable. 



Herein lies one of the niceties of apple and 

 pear pruning: the utmost care must be 

 exercised to avoid breaking these spurs be- 

 cause a spur once gone is gone forever! The 

 only time that they should be cut off" is when 

 there are too many. This may occur in old 

 trees, but only two or three years' observation 

 during the fruiting season can decide the 

 point. If the fruits are small, if there are 

 few of them, and if such as do mature are of 

 poor quality for the variety, the most un- 

 favorably placed of the spurs may be removed. 

 Instead of removing individual spurs, how- 

 ever, small branches in the upper parts of the 

 trees may be removed, preferably scattered 

 here and there so as not to make great gaps 

 and thus let in too much sunlight with the 

 possible danger of sun-scalding the previously 

 too shaded branches. 



As to young apple and pear trees — trees 

 under ten years old — beware of pruning too 

 much. The probability is that they under-r 

 stand their functions in life better than the 

 best pruner. Most important of all: keep 

 hands off every one of these little stubby twigs 

 — fruit spurs — that begin to appear perhaps 

 as early as the second year after planting. 



