272 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
the value of manure are included, the 
dairy showing is very gratifying. 
F. A. Norton, 
Grandview, Wash 
PRUNING 
Pruning is plant surgery. It is the 
knife or instrument applied to a tree as 
the knife of the surgeon 1s applied to the 
body of the animal or of man. The con- 
sequences of error in the two kinds of 
surgery may be vastly different. 
The life forces of the tree tend to re- 
store the equilibrium that was impaired 
by the severing of the limb from the par- 
ent stock. It will likely put out new 
branches that perform, in a measure, the 
functions of the old, or increase the 
strength of existing branches, and this is 
an effort of nature to restore equilibrium 
of form and energy. Thus the conse- 
quences between the two kinds of surgery 
are different and yet analogous. 
Have A Definite Plan 
This leads us to conclude that no one 
should prune without a definite end in 
view. No one should go into an orchard 
and cut and slash promiscuously without 
reasons, any more than he would send a 
butcher into a hospital to carve the bodies 
of patients according to the rules he 
learned in the shop. No two patients in 
a hospital will need exactly the same treat- 
ment, unless in very exceptional cases 
where the circumstances are very similar 
and the organisms of the patients alike. 
In nature no two things are exactly alike, 
therefore, no two trees would demand 
exactly the same treatment in pruning. 
There are general characteristics, how- 
ever, that belong to certain varieties, and 
these would lead us to give to each and 
every one of these varieties the same 
general treatment. For instance, the 
Wagener apple tree tends to grow 
straight, the branches closing in toward 
the center very much on the style of a 
Bartlett pear. There are other apples 
that tend to grow in the same manner. 
In trees of this character, the limbs would 
be cut away from the center with the 
purpose of giving a more spreading and 
open top than they would naturally have. 
The Jonathan, the Winesap, and other 
varieties tend to produce bushy tops with 
spreading branches. Trees of this chay 
acter should generally be piuned more 
from the outside in order to make it pos 
sible to cultivate, spray and gather the 
fruit with less interference from the 
overhanging branches. 
Experience in Low Heading 
There is one thing about which we are 
more fixed in our opinions than about 
any other on the subject of pruning, and 
that 1s the question of low heading as 
compared with high heading We have 
been brought to this conclusion by one 
of those accidents which often cause us 
to discover things we would not other. 
wise discover, and theretore to reverse 
our judgments of methods We have in 
our orchard several trees which, when 
they were young, were injured during 
the winter by rabbits. These orchard 
enemies peeled the bark from at least a 
dozen trees, and the owner of the orch 
ard felt that great damage was done to 
them. The question was, whether to 
dig them up and plant otheis, or to 
allow them to grow and put out new 
shoots near the ground. The latter plan 
was adopted These trees are now six- 
teen years old, the same age as other 
trees in the orchard, and of those adja 
cent to them We have taken photo- 
graphs of these trees in comparison with 
others of the same age and the same va- 
rieties near them, and the photographs 
show what is true in fact, that in every 
case the trees that were headed at the 
ground or just above the ground, are 
the largest, most vigorous trees in the 
orchard. The same conditions prevailed 
in the case of the high headed trees as in 
the case of the low, except that in the 
case of the low headed trees the branches 
put out just above the ground, while the 
others were headed so that they began 
to branch about two feet above the ground 
Whatever may be the causes the facts 
remain. We have seen this in other 
orchards as well as in our own. When 
we try to discover the causes we find 
the following: 
1. There is less space between the root 
system and the top system, and there is, 
