FRUIT GROWING FOR HOME USE IN THE GREAT PLAINS. live 
in a tree top, and consequently the more foliage there is, the greater 
the amount of moisture that is taken up from the soil and passed off 
through the leaves into the atmosphere. 
Two very strong reasons are thus indicated why fruit trees should 
be thoroughly and systematically pruned: (1) It results in the pro- 
duction of better fruit and in many cases more of it. (2) It is a 
factor in conserving the soil moisture. This is always of great impor- 
tance in this region. 
There is a great difference in different kinds of fruit trees and even 
in different varieties of the same kind with regard to the amount of 
pruning that is nec- 
essary or desirable, 
some requiring very 
severe treatment, 
while others call for 
very little. But 
with the underlying 
principles in mind 
the application of 
them is not difficult. 
Reference to the ac- 
companying illus- 
trations will be sug- 
gestive in regard to 
this operation. 
Figure 4 shows a 
peach tree about 
four years old that 
stands in a yard in 
Plainview, Tex. It 
is low headed, its F!- 4—A well-formed peach tree about four years old, Plainview, Tex. 

branches are not too numerous, and in general it may be considered 
a well-formed, well-pruned tree. 
Figure 57is a Ben Davis apple tree that stands in a dry-land orchard 
about 18 miles southeast of Denver, Colo. This tree has not been 
allowed to develop a top that is too dense, and in other respects it is 
desirable as to form. 
The trees shown in figure 2 also are headed low and have other de- 
sirable features, but the tops should be thinned out somewhat to make 
them more open. 


@The owner of the orchard in which the tree shown in figure 5 is located has a 
field of alfalfa on a creek bottom that passes through his ranch. He was irrigating 
this alfalfa at the time the photograph was taken. This is why he was wearing rub- 
ber boots. The orchard has never been irrigated. The roots of this tree probably 
do not reach the water table. 
PCr. 5st] 
