8 LEAFLET 221, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Cuutrivation.—The cultivation of the home fruit garden is similar to 
that of the vegetable garden for the first part of the season. After 
about September 1 cultivation of fruit trees, vines, and bushes should 
cease. Strawberries should be cultivated until the end of the growing 
season. Under most conditions the same methods of maintaining the 
fertility of the soil that are followed in a vegetable garden are success- 
ful with fruit. Where stable manure is available, its liberal use gener- 
ally gives excellent results. When manure is not available, a fertilizer 
high in nitrogen should be used. : 
Pruning AFTHR THE First Ys ™ many inexperienced growers 
the question of how to prune trees and bushes appears to be very compli- 
cated. If certain basic principles are kept in mind, however, it is pos- 
sible for even the inexperienced grower to do a satisfactory job of pruning. 
The purpose of pruning is to develop the tree or bush so that it will have 
maximum strength to carry a load of fruit and maximum bearing capac- 
ity. Asafe rule in pruning trees, particularly young trees up to bearing 
age, is to prune them as little as will accomplish this specific purpose. 
Cross branches and suckers should be removed and broken or dying 
limbs should be cut out. Young trees of most fruits require little prun- © 
ing before they come into bearing. Pruning of fruit treesin general should 
be done during the dormant season, preferably in the spring after danger 
of severe winter freezing is past but before growth of trees has started. 
If the grapevine is to be trained to a fence or a wire trellis, it should 
be tied to a stake and carried upright until it reaches the top. At that 
point it should be pinched off and two laterals led out, one in either 
direction, along the wire. During the second season, lateral canes 
will grow from all the buds along the trunk. 
In most cases the vines, if properly cared for, will begin to bear fruit 
the third year after planting and should continue to produce a satisfac- 
tory crop for many years thereafter. 
Pruning should be done while the vines are in a dormant condition. 
It is important to note that the fruit is borne on shoots from the canes 
of the previous season’s growth. In pruning, therefore, enough new 
wood should be saved to provide for the next summer’s crop and the 
rest should be removed. With healthy, vigorous vines, 50 to 60 
buds will produce as much fruit as the vine can mature properly. 
Vines of muscadine grapes are pruned somewhat differently. With 
these the canes laid off on the wires serve as permanent arms and the 
new growth is pruned so as to leave fruiting spurs 6 to 8 inches long. 
Such spurs should be evenly distributed along the arm and so spaced as 
to allow free development of new shoots. All excess wood should be 
pruned away. 
In central and southern Texas the pruning of dewberries and black- 
berries consists in removing all the canes, both old and new, after the 
fruit has been picked. New canes will then develop strong growth to 
produce fruit for the following season. In northern Texas and north- 
ward the season is not long enough for strong new canes to grow. 
There just the old canes that have fruited should be cut out after the 
fruit has been picked. The new canes of dewberries are left till the 
following spring, when they are tied in a spiral to stakes standing about 
6 feet above ground or to a wire trellis about 3 feet above ground. 
Winter pruning of the blackberry consists in cutting back lateral 
branches to about 12 inches. 
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1942 
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C. - - - - - - - Price 5 cents 
