170 
THE GARDEN IM A G A Z I N E 
December, 1916 
illarj- buds), but these are exceptional. 
Peaches bear their fruits mostly on wood 
developed the previous summer, so the long 
shoots may be cut back 50 to 75 per cent, 
without loss of crop. Cherries bear their 
buds partly near the base of the previous 
summer’s growths and partly upon “spurs.” 
Therefore, they need little pruning; the sour 
kinds need heading back much oftener than 
do the sweet kinds because they do not de- 
velop so many spurs and tend to have their 
fruiting parts farther and farther from the 
trunk each year. 
In pruning currants and gooseberries, it is 
well to remove all wood older than four 3'ears 
of age, because the best fruit is borne on two- 
year and three-year old wood. It is, there- 
fore, a good plan to let onlj' two or three of 
the best sprouts remain each 3'ear so there will 
alwaj’s be wood of one, two, three, and four 
3'ears of age. Best results wdl come, however, 
if the oldest ones are cut out as soon as they 
have borne fruit in midsummer. 
As soon as raspberries, blackberries, dew- 
berries and other fruits of the bramble class 
have borne fruit, the fruited canes should be 
cut out and burned so the ^mung ones may 
have better light and air. If this is not done 
in midsummer, it certainly should be done 
before spring opens. 
As to flowering shrubs, and trees, it is 
important to know when the flower buds are 
developed. Notice the photograph of the 
Redbud — no leaves. These buds developed 
the pre\’ious season. A somewhat similar 
case is that of the quince and the Weigela in 
which the blossoms are borne on short shoots 
developed in the spring from buds that have 
“rested” over winter. Such plants should 
never be pruned during the winter unless 
it be to remove dead wood or old and unde- 
sirable branches. 1 he reason is that immense 
numbers of blossom buds would thus be lost. 
1 he time to prune them is immediately after 
the flowers have fallen. Fortunately, there 
is only one other general class of shrubs and 
trees to remember. To this belong those 
late blooming plants — Hydrangea, Rose ol 
Sharon, Witch Hazel, certain Roses, and a 
few others. These may be pruned at anv 
time during the winter. Personally, I prefer 
to cut back semi-hardy kinds belonging to 
this class, leaving more wood than I need 
and then mulching with litter, straw, leaves 
or corn stalks until spring, when a final prun- 
ing is given. These plants develop their 
flower buds on wood of the same season’s 
growth. 
I have always made it a practice to ex- 
amine, at least twice a year, everj^ tree and 
shrub on the various places where I have re- 
sided to determine critically how much, or 
better, how little pruning the plants needed. 
My belief is that while a large number of 
trees and shrubs are utterly neglected yet 
many are over-pruned or, what amounts to 
the same thing, are injudiciously pruned. 
They are thus prevented from performing the 
very things for which they are planted. 
The A B 
C of Spraying — ALDEN FEARING, chusetts 
N 
N ow is the time to consider the spray- 
ing campaign for 1917. The dormant 
sprays may be applied at any time 
from now till the end of March, and 
the necessity for spring spraying follows so 
soon after that one has little more than time 
to prepare for it. If other fruit growers are 
like me, they will find the time upon them 
before thej'^ are fully aware of it. Right now 
is none too soon to get out the spray 
/ pump and overhaul it, see that it is 
/ clean of last year’s lead arsenate, that 
p the rubber hose has not rotted, that no 
I parts are missing, that the nozzles are 
in good working order. Then order 
your lime-sulphur or miscible oils, and 
get busy. 
The time has passed when it was 
necessary to put up an argument in 
f favor of spraying. Spraying for codling 
moth has been going on now for over 
thirty years, and none but the 
backward farmer now refuses 
to believe in its effectiveness. 
As Dean Bailey puts it, spray- 
ing is an insurance, and 
should be practised whether 
pests appear to be present or 
not. Orchard pests appear to 
have increased in numbers 
and activity within the mem- 
ory of young men, and spray- 
ing was never more of a 
necessity than to-day. The 
first thing a buyer asks of 
me when he calls me up re- 
garding my apples is not 
whether they have been hand picked or 
sorted, but “Have they been sprayed?” 
And it isrjust as important for the 
single tree in the dooryard, if you want 
good fruit from it, as it is for the big 
commercial orchard. 
To my mind, the trouble with most of 
books, pamphlets, and bulletins that have 
been published on spraying and orchard pests 
is that they tell too much. "The writers, 
being of scientific mind, seem unable to omit 
the smallest detail of pest or mixture. When 
I first began to look into the matter I was 
appalled by the bigness of it. The whole 
The ring- 
like egg 
masses o f 
the tent 
caterpillar 
can be seen 
now 
th 
world seemed to be swarming with legions of 
unseen enemies banded together to destroy 
m3’ trees, old and young, and the only way to 
beat them was apparently to mix up a score 
of different concoctions, from carbon bisul- 
phide to London purple (whatever that may be), 
and go gunning every day of the year. It 
was most confusing, not to say disheartening. 
I presume I should state in the first place 
that I am not a large grower. I have only 
six hundred 3’oung apple trees, 'half a hundred 
old ones, and an assortment of plums, peaches, 
cherries, pears, quinces, etc., for home use; 
I didn’t like to think that I had got to mix 
my own sprays according to the complicated 
formulae in the bulletins, and I didn’t want 
to hire a gang of men to do the job. Thus far 
I have achieved satisfactory results with a 
single hand-pump barrel spra3^er and ready- 
mixed sprays, and I fancy my case is like that 
of hundreds of others. 
To continue on personal ground, I might also 
say that I have never had any experience with 
half the insects and fungi mentioned in the 
books, norwith half the spray mixtures. There 
are certain orchard troubles that stand out pre- 
dominant and that are everywhere prevalent, 
and I have a feeling that if the fruit-grower can 
first conquer these, his task is half completed 
at least. 
Now my own experience has shown me that 
I must wage war chiefly against the San Jose 
scale, the codling moth, the curculio, the 
apple tree borer, the meadow mouse, the rail- 
road worm or apple maggot, the tent cater- 
pillar and some other leaf worms, and oc- 
casionally aphides or plant lice. Briefly, 
the treatment has been as follows: 
For mice and borers, clean cultivation, with 
no grass or weeds allowed to remain about the 
young trees at the end of the season. 
For aphides, hand spraying with kerosene 
emulsion, when they appear. 
For railroad worm, cultivation and keeping 
the ground clear of windfalls. Spraying 
won’t get this pest, for the fly doesn’t stay 
on the fruit long enough. She hatches in the 
ground, flies up to the tree, stings the fruit 
and deposits her eggs, and flies away. The 
eggs hatch into small worms which ruin the 
apples. The only way to get the better of the 
Eggs of the rusty tussock moth are laid on leaves which 
hang to the trees in winter 
maggot is to destroy the pupae in the ground, 
or never let them get there. I am free to 
confess that my greatest aid in this campaign 
was a late frost which destroyed all my fruit 
one year, so that the maggots had nothing 
to breed in. Since then I have kept the wind- 
falls picked up clean and have had practically 
no further trouble even on the oldest trees. 
My trouble with curculio on apples may 
arise from the proximity of plum trees. 
There’s another beast that has to have salt 
dropped on his tail before you can catch him, 
but spraying helps. 
For caterpillars, the lead arsenate spray, 
and a destruction of the nests with the gloved 
hand on young trees not yet in bearing, which 
are not sprayed for codling moth. 
For scales, spraying with lime-sulphur or 
miscible oils in the dormant season. 
For codling moth, spraying with lead arsen- 
ate. 
This is but a brief and unscientific resume. 
I have outlined it simply to encourage the 
beginner into believing that the job isn’t 
so stupendous after all. It is my intention 
now to give the question of spra3’ing a some- 
what closer scrutiny, still confining myself, 
however, to the more important fruit tree 
troubles. 
Now the worst of the orchard enemies may 
be grouped into three classes; insects which 
chew, insects which suck, and fungi. And it is 
important to know just a little about their 
habits in order to know just when to spray 
and what with. 
1 
I 
A 
