7io 



Pruning Fruit Trees. 



[march, 



result of trees being lifted to supply customers. It would not 

 be economy of ground to leave the drifts in this state, and so 

 the unsold trees are lifted. The replanting serves as root 

 pruning, and the trees get that fibrous root system which 

 growers appreciate so much. When, however, the trees which 

 have been purchased by customers have been established for 

 a year or two in their new quarters, possibly in very rich soil, 

 they may again acquire a coarse root system, and the branch 

 growth become too luxuriant to be fruitful. Lifting and root 

 pruning are then of the greatest benefit, and it should be re- 

 membered that the operation can be performed far more 

 •easily and expeditiously two years after a young tree has been 

 planted than when it has been established ten years. At the 

 latter stage a great deal of soil may have to be shifted before 

 the roots can be found at all, especially if the trees are on free 

 or crab stocks. 



The extent to which the head of a three-year-old bush 

 should be reduced when it has been purchased at a nursery 

 and planted in a private or market garden has formed a subject 

 of controversy among growers. If the tree has been thrice 

 shortened in the nursery it should certainly possess a good 

 foundation. It may have a few fruit buds on it. Such a 

 tree need not be cut in so severely as a young standard, as the 

 wood will probably be firmer and riper, and in any case it will 

 not be so much exposed to wind-sway. It will, however, be 

 wise to shorten the shoots to the extent of about one-third, 

 and also to pick off the fruit buds, so that the tree may not 

 have the strain of bearing during the first season. Advice 

 of this nature is not palatable to many amateurs, who are 

 invariably anxious to get fruit at once, and for whose benefit 

 the nurseryman develops a special class of tree well bristling 

 with fruit spurs, but no tree has ever yet been injured by fruit 

 suppression in the first planting season, whereas thousands 

 have been checked by the want of it. This matter of pruning 

 young trees after removal from the nursery might be discussed 

 at some length, as it is of considerable importance, but as it 

 was dealt with in detail by the present writer a few months 

 ago* it is hardly necessary* to go over the whole ground how. 

 A few general principles may however be mentioned. 



* Journal, Vol. XIV., No. II, February, 1907, p. 660. 



