THE SUMMER PRUNING OF FRUIT TREES. 



491 



is the same, it is not possible to affirm that the wood formation has been 

 identical, for the primings have not been weighed. From the results 

 obtained with very severe pruning and cutting back in summer, it would 

 appear that even moderate summer pruning must decrease somewhat 

 the wood-formation. 



In illustration of the great variation of results produced by differences 

 in soil I may quote a letter received some time ago from Mr. F. W. Moore, 

 of the Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin. He says : 



"Within a radius of fifteen miles from this the conditions are quite 

 different. Here, if I do not summer-prune — or, I should say, summer- 

 pinch, for I never remove more than two eyes in summer — I get a 

 number of blind eyes at the base ; and if I cut hard enough in spring to 

 make these eyes break, I only get growths and not spurs. The soil here 

 is a poor light loam, shallow, and resting on limestone gravel. At 

 Straffan, about fifteen miles from this, on a cool stiff clay near the 

 river, Mr. Bedford finds that if he summer-prunes he gets too much 

 rank growth, and that the eyes break well even after a light winter 

 pruning. We have often compared results. He suffers from too much 

 moisture as a rule ; I suffer from too much drought." 



The more serious operation of summer pruning proper, as contrasted 

 with summer pinching, may doubtless have some inhibitory effect on 

 the growth of the tree similar to that which followed from the hard 

 pruning in summer in the case of the Woburn experiments already 

 quoted. It can only be in exceptional cases that such stunting of a tree 

 can ever be desirable ; and, whatever the immediate effect on the fruiting 

 may be, it is probable that it will result in a diminution of the total 

 crop borne by the tree in its lifetime. It is clear, too, that with such 

 summer pruning there is always a great risk of getting a thicket of 

 useless growth and a considerable reduction of fruit. It would seem, 

 therefore, that summer pruning proper should only be applied to 

 vigorously growing branches in cases where it is desirable to check their 

 growth for the sake of improving the balance of the tree. 



Perhaps it is legitimate to raise the question as to how far summer 

 pruning, even when it accomplishes all that is expected of it, is really 

 desirable. All that it can do is to increase the blossom buds on a tree, 

 but that does not necessarily increase the fruiting, and it may even have 

 the opposite effect. Probably, in nine cases out of ten, a deficiency of 

 crop, in the case of a tree which has come to maturity, is not due to 

 deficiency of flowering, but to the destruction of the blossoms by frost 

 or living pests, or to the imperfect fertilisation, or setting, of the fruit. 

 Numerous cases may be noticed every year in which trees which seemed 

 rather deficient in flower have yielded as much fruit as they could well 

 carry, and others in which there has been excessive flowering followed 

 by little or no fruit. Excessive flowering also often leads to reduction 

 in the value of a crop by the strain which it puts on the resources of the 

 tree. This is very noticeable with 1 Lord Grosvenor ' and some other 

 apples. A row of twenty large bush trees of this variety, which have 

 been under my immediate observation, have offered a conspicuous example 

 in point this year. About half of them had very little blossom, but 

 yielded eventually a good paying crop of fine fruits, the trees being 



