APPLES 285 
be done better by withholding cultiva- 
tion and irrigation or by what is termed 
summer pruning. Top pruning produces 
wood while root pruning reduces wood. 
Checking growth induces fruitfulness. 
The season of pruning influences fruitful- 
ness and for that reason it is better to 
summer prune for fruit and winter prune 
for wood. Climate and locality may~affect 
the time of pruning. 
Young trees grow rapidly and make 
strong, upright growth, but as they get 
Fig. 1. 
Improper Method of Cutting the Limbs. 
older and come into bearing the tops 
spread out and the growth is less vigor- 
ous. Bearing trees require less top prun- 
ing, and this seems to be especially true 
in a dry climate. 
Every apple grower is confronted every 
winter with the question of how best to 
prune his trees. The heaviest pruning 
in proportion to the amount of tree top 
should be done during the first three to 
five years of the tree’s growth. During 
this time the apple tree should be prop- 
erly started and be well pruned so that 
when it comes into bearing it will not 
be necessary to prune it severely. 
Two forms are generally considered in 
the starting of the young apple tree in 
the orchard, the low and high-headed 
tree. The choice of either one of these 
forms depends to a great extent on the 
cultural methods to be followed by the 
orchardist, and upon the climatic condi- 
tions. The high-headed tree is better 
adapted to Eastern sections while the low 
headed trees are preferred for New 
Mexico. 
The first pruning of the young apple 
tree, after it has been }transplanted to 
the apple orchard, should be carefully 
done as at this time we determine the 
height of the trunk. The top should be 
cut back to about 12 to 18 inches from 
the ground. The following spring a num- 
ber of limbs will develop from the trunk. 
Three to five limbs should only be allowed 
to form the scaffold. At the next prun- 
ing, the following spring, these scaffold 
limbs are again cut back somewhat and 
any interfering limbs are also removed. 
At the third and even the fourth pruning 
the limbs should be cut back and the 
tree rounded up generally. By this 
method of pruning the tree is shaped up 
and properly started. 
While there are some fruit growers 
who claim that the bearing apple tree 
should be cut back every year the na- 
ture of the growth in this climate does 
not warrant such practice and on the 
whole the results are not so satisfactory. 
The bearing tree should be pruned as 
lightly as possible. It does not produce 
the same rank growth that the young 
tree does during the first few years. A 
great deal of the vitality of the bearing 
tree is used up in the production of the 
fruit, and in fruit spurs for the follow- 
ing crop, as it takes two seasons for the 
apple to form its first buds. While the 
tree does not require severe pruning it 
should be pruned a little every year. All 
the dead and broken limbs should be re- 
moved as well as those which interfere. 
Avoid the cutting of large branches. 
The limbs should be cut as near the 
trunk as possible so the wound may heal 
over quickly. Never cut limbs so as to 
leave a stump one or more inches in 
length. Such stumps if left never heal 
over. The healing of the wound depends 
on the activity of the cabium layer. 
This layer is most active in the spring 
after the tree starts to growing. The 
longer the wound remains exposed. the 
more it will dry and crack. Wounds 
which are made in the fall or mid-winter 
necessarily remain longer before the cam- 
