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REPORT OF THE FIRST SEMI-ANNUAL MEETING 



tects its body from the hot sun. In his estimation a great deal of 

 fruiting space is gained by such treatment. He said he could show 

 limbs two inches in diameter that had been pruned without any 

 die-back. All Mr. Coolidge's pruning is done in the vigorous grow- 

 ing season. He says that he has known them to die back in many 

 instances, when cut in the early spring or the fall. Questioned, he 

 said he had never trimmed back a Taft or any of the other thick- 

 skinned type. Mr. Whedon, who asked the above question, gave it 

 as his experience that such treatment of first-class trees would 

 cause them to die. 



WORMS AS PRUNERS 



To show a kind of instinctive tendency to control the wood 

 and leaf growth, E. E. Knight of Yorba Linda described a system 

 the Indians of Guatamala have of driving "Hear Me" worms (so 

 called because they raise their heads Avhen any one speaks) among 

 the trees and shooing them up the trunks. He says they do all the 

 pruning practiced there. Regarding his own experiences Mr. 

 Knight stated that he had trimmed one of the hard-shell types with 

 a view to demonstrating whether it would be killed by cutting back, 

 and that it gave him no difficulty, but the rather heavy pruning 

 produced a very beautifully shaped tree. He agreed with Mr. 

 Coolidge that a tree could be pruned to give a large bearing space 

 and still be kept in compact form. Comparing an unpruned tree 

 with the pruned tree he found the former had enormous, long 

 branches with two or three fruits in a space that should have a 

 dozen or more. Small pruned trees furnish evidence to him that 

 it is better to have compact trees with large bearing surface rather 

 than the huge branches with little fruit space. The tendency to 

 terminal growths to the exclusion of laterals should be controlled 

 by cutting the terminal points. One eleven-year-old tree, thirty 

 feet in height, with branches reaching the ground, yet having com- 

 paratively little bearing space, and a two or three-year-old tree 

 pruned to throw out many lateral branches assisted him in reach- 

 ing the above conclusion. The Meserve variety is referred to. 



In regard to shaping trees, Mr. Whedon said he has two trees, 

 ten or twelve years old, that he clips for the purpose of shaping, 

 and although he hasn't bound or waxed any of the cuts he has had 

 no die-back. 



