1905.] Experiments with Apple Trees. 491 



case of varieties which were very precocious, and, consequently, 

 were weak growers, and in no case, on the strength of the 

 results at present obtained, would the omission of such pruning 

 as may be necessary to shape a tree properly and prevent its 

 branches from crossing and rubbing be advocated. 



Incidentally it has been noticed that although a tree which is 

 not pruned is much larger at first than a pruned one — as 

 regards the extension of its branches — this superiority 

 diminishes in time, the unpruned trees being now very little 

 larger than the pruned ones. There also appears to be a 

 sinking of the tree into the soil as it grows. 



Summer pruning, shaping, or pinching, seem to have been 

 followed by no good results in the case of the trees at Woburn, 

 but rather the reverse, and such treatment is not, therefore, 

 recommended. It may be successful in some seasons, but, 

 generally, it results only in the growth of weak, unripened wood, 

 which has to be removed in the following autumn. 



Pruning at different times of the year, between the fall of the 

 leaf and the ensuing spring, has been investigated in the case of 

 a mixed plantation, and the results show that there is nothing 

 in favour of doing the pruning at one time rather than another, 

 nor have any evil effects been observed to be produced by 

 pruning during the severest weather. 



Root Pruning. — The extent to which root pruning checks the 

 growth of a tree is illustrated in several of the plots. Root- 

 pruning every year practically stops all growth, and the trees 

 thus treated are now moribund. When the root pruning is per- 

 formed less frequently the effect is proportionately less, and 

 recovery, accompanied by relatively heavy cropping, begins in 

 the second year after the operation. The mere replanting of a 

 tree, if performed without injury to the roots, does not appear 

 to affect it at all ; but injury cannot be avoided if the tree is 

 above a certain size, and, in the case of the tree being exposed 

 for some time before it is replanted, the injury appears to be 

 very material, the tree receiving a check from which it never 

 recovers, or, at least, does not do so within the next nine 

 years. 



Transplanting. — The age at which a tree will best bear trans- 

 planting has been investigated in the case of bush apples and 



