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AMERICAN POMOEOGICAI, SOCIETY 
THE MAINTENANCE OF PROFITABLE BEARING TREES. 
GeOi C. Roeding, California. 
The first point of vital interest to every planter of an orchard is, how 
soon after the trees are set out they will come into profitable hearing and 
pay for the effort expended — not only from a financial standpoint but also 
for the cultivation, pruning, and the many other incidental expenses which 
arise before any returns are received? 
After the trees have once come into bearing, the next problem which 
confronts the horticulturist is to know how to maintain this condition over 
a period of years without impairing the vitality of the trees. 
There is one point in particular that causes trees to lose their vitality 
quicker than any other one thing, and that is the anxiety of the orchardist to 
have his trees bear a full crop of fruit before they have reached the stage 
where they are capable of doing so, resulting in many cases in the vitality 
of the trees being impaired to such an extent when they are from two to 
three years old that they never fully recover. 
The Importance of Pruning. 
The greatest difficulty which the nurserymen experience with the aver- 
age planter is to induce him to cut the trees back after they have been 
planted. Invariably the orchardist hesitates to sacrifice any part of the 
tree and in many instances in spite of all the instructions to the contrary 
the tree will be planted just as it was received from the nursery. 
Experienced horticulturists are fully aware of the fact that where the 
roots are pruned as they must necessarily be when taken out of the nursery 
that the top of the tree must also be shortened in so that the new root 
system and the corresponding growth where the tree has been cut back will 
develop together. It is an invariable rule that all deciduous trees, outside 
of possibly walnuts and pecans, should be cut back to at least twenty (20) 
inches from the surface of the ground after they have been planted. The 
following season the branches which have started from the main stem should 
be thinned out to three or four — not more — properly distributed so as to allow 
for their future development, and these branches should have at least two- 
thirds of their summer growth cut off and all laterals should be removed, 
leaving only the frame work branches, which will eventually form the head 
of the tree. Above all things do not shorten in a lateral starting near the 
terminal point of any of the branches as this will cause a bad crook to form 
in the tree. The result of this first year’s pruning will cause the trees to 
make an immense growth and will also induce them to grow stocky. 
The second winter heavy thinning will have to be followed and the prun- 
ing should be done with a view of causing the frame work branches to spread 
out. After thinning, half the growth of the current season should be cut 
off and again remove all laterals from the frame work branches. To the nov- 
ice this severe cutting seems suicidal but years of experience have fully dem- 
onstrated the necessity for this severe cutting when the trees are young, for 
as a result of it the frame work branches and the body of the tree attain a 
development which they never would do if the trees were permitted to grow 
only with a slight pruning. 
