1907. 
906 
THE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
SUMMER PRUNING OF FRUIT TREES. 
H. T. W., Ozark, Ark .—What has 
been the experience of your readers 
in the Summer pruning of fruit trees? 
Has it hastened the fruiting of trees 
that are usually late in coming into bear¬ 
ing? I have noticed by doing this the form¬ 
ing of fruit spurs early, in trees that are 
slow to hear. This year I cut off in mid¬ 
summer one-half of this season’s growth of 
new wood in some pear trees. Immediately 
after that the energies of the trees went 
almost wholly to the making of fruit spurs, 
when there had been none before. This prin¬ 
ciple if correct will hasten the fruiting age 
of trees almost two years in one. We soon 
expect fruit when fruit spurs appear. The 
pruning we usually do in the Spring, if done 
in the Summer before, will gain us an extra 
year in the fruit-bearing time of the tree, 
if this way proves true for all to follow. 
The experience of tree growers will help u* 
know this. 
The most successful Summer pruning 
that I have seen was in western British 
Columbia, western Washington and 
western Oregon. In that mild and hu¬ 
mid climate, fruit trees make a very ex¬ 
uberant growth upon strong soil, and 
not infrequently come into bearing very 
late if pruned when dormant. I have 
met a number of fruit growers there 
who habitually prune in midsummer to 
check growth, and several men have 
stated to me that they have thus been 
able to bring apple trees into bearing 
two or three years before Winter-pruned 
trees of the same age. In the East, I 
have seen Summer pruning practiced on 
late fruiting Spy trees with good re¬ 
sults. I feel quite sure that Summer 
pruning can be used to advantage as a 
means of hastening the bearing of cer¬ 
tain varieties, on very strong soils; but 
it should be resorted to only in special 
cases, and is not advisable for all fruit 
trees under all conditions. Continuous 
Summer pruning may weaken a tree 
seriously. My own feeling is that only 
strong growing varieties, on rich soils, 
may be profitably treated in this way; 
that Spring pruning is the general rule, 
.and Summer pruning the special excep¬ 
tion. The guide should be the growth 
(of the trees. s. w. fletcher. 
The old adage, “Prune in Winter for 
•wood, and in Summer for fruit,” prob¬ 
ably has some foundation in fact. It is 
founded upon the well-known fact that 
any occurrence which threatens the life 
of tree or plant, tends to cause it to 
produce seed (fruit) that its kind may 
be reproduced and not suffer extinction. 
I had at one time a block of Anjou pear 
trees, about 15 years old, or possibly 18, 
which had never borne a quarter of a 
crop. They were attacked severely by 
blight, and cut back heavily, about mid¬ 
summer. They then began bearing abun¬ 
dantly, and I attributed it to the 
Summer cutting back. I have also prac¬ 
ticed Summer pruning in the case of 
young trees which were making a very 
strong growth, and putting forth many 
shoots four or five feet in*length, with 
few or no side branches. These, if left 
unchecked during the entire season, 
would need to be cut back severely the 
next Spring in order to preserve the 
proper shape of tree and sufficient side 
branches on the limbs. This would 
mean a considerable loss of the labors 
of the tree which might better be di¬ 
rected into proper channels by Summer 
pruning, or more properly, Summer 
pinching, and the energy of the trees 
utilized in building up as rapidly as pos¬ 
sible, a strong, well-furnished tree, ca¬ 
pable of producing a large crop of fruit. 
To accomplish this, I go over the trees 
several times if possible, during the 
growing season, and pinch off the ends 
of young shoots and cause them to form 
branches, so that next Spring but little 
wood need be removed. Observant or- 
chardists will agree that all pruning may 
be called a necessary evil to be avoided 
as much as possible. I do not wish to 
convey the idea that I object to prun¬ 
ing, for I certainly do not, but I would 
try to attain the desired end, with as lit¬ 
tle pruning as possible, and this is a 
case where “A stitch in time saves 
nine.” w. w. Farnsworth. 
Ohio. 
We have been carrying on experi¬ 
ments in Summer pruning of trees for 
several years at this experiment station. 
We find that the subject is much more 
difficult and complicated than we had 
supposed. Different varieties of trees 
are differently affected, but more par¬ 
ticularly we find it necessary to pay 
close attention to the amount of prun¬ 
ing, the time when it is done and the 
condition of the tree. If Summer prun¬ 
ing is done too early, it will simply force 
side shoots into a weak soft growth, 
often destroying fruit spurs in the proc¬ 
ess of formation. This applies both to 
pome fruits, like the apple and pear, and 
to drupe fruits like the plum and peach. 
On the whole, we are inclined to use 
more Summer pruning, but to practice 
it somewhat later than formerly. 
Massachusetts. f. a. waugh. 
My experience has been that any¬ 
thing that mars a fruit tree at the time 
of the formation of the cambium tends 
to hasten the formation of fruit buds. 
This marring may be caused by prun¬ 
ing, by the ringing of a limb, by root 
pruning or the accidental wounding of 
the tree by the use of the harrow or in 
any other way. A tree that is weakened 
by decay of part of its trunk will set 
fruit abundantly. Nature seems to ab¬ 
hor a failure, and when a tree is 
threatened by death, it tends to repro¬ 
duce itself by the formation of seed. 
What we commonly call the fruit pro¬ 
duced on trees is the pericarp, or fleshy 
part of the fruit surrounding the carpels 
which contain the seed. The production 
of the seed is the thing aimed at by na¬ 
ture. Nature is bountiful in her re¬ 
sources and hence we get our luscious 
fruits in her efforts at reproduction. 
Summer pruning, which should be in 
June, damages the trees, and the buds, 
being in the formative stage at that 
time, are changed in some cases from 
what would be leaf buds to fruit buds. 
Our plant physiologists tell us that 
there is no perceptible difference in the 
early stages of bud formation between 
leaf buds and fruit buds. When a shock 
is given to the tree the tendency is to 
deposit about the forming buds some 
kind of food material thac causes a part 
of them to develop into fruit buds. Very 
similar to this is the development of a 
queen bee. If a colony of bees loses its 
queen, the workers, which are unde¬ 
veloped females, can take an egg which, 
left to itself, would make a worker, and 
by surrounding it with what bee men 
call “royal jelly” it becomes a developed 
queen. So nature can make a fruit bud 
out of a leaf bud. At the time that 
Winter or Spring pruning is done the 
great workhouse of the tree which is 
in the leaves, is not in operation and 
the buds that will furnish the leaves in 
the warmth of Spring have been fixed 
the previous Summer and cannot be 
changed. I have no doubt but Summer 
pruning tends to fruitfulness. Both my 
experience and my knowledge of plant 
physiology teach the same lesson. 
Seattle, Wash. f. walden. 
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