1914. 
THE RURAL NEW-VUKKER 
347 
THE PRUNING OF APPLE TREES. 
Part I. 
We have definite information and fig¬ 
ures to back it up, when the question of 
selecting, planting, fertilizing, or market¬ 
ing arises, but no one can give more 
than general information as to how to 
prune, unless he has seen the tree, knows 
the variety and something of the previous 
history of the tree. One also needs a 
pretty good imagination, which will help 
him see the effect the pruning will have 
on the future growth of the tree. 
What is pruning? Is it a mere form¬ 
ing of the top of the tree into some sym¬ 
metrical or grotesque shape, or is it 
a process in the development of the tree 
in which the grower considers the pre¬ 
vious life, present condition as to sur¬ 
roundings, vitality and value, and the 
effect of the treatment on the future of 
the tree? One’s success depends largely 
upon his conception of what pruning is. 
The writer has, in the four years spent 
at commercial pruning, discovered many 
curious ideas concerning tree pruning. 
One man said that he left long stubs on 
his trees because someone had told him 
it would take longer for them to rot into 
the tree. Another with the same idea, 
in talking about some trees that had just 
been pruned, said that they were spoiled 
just as his neighbor had spoiled some. 
This neighbor had made all cuts close 
and decay set in and destroyed the trees. 
and well-shaped tree, with the minimum 
expense for pruning. 
Most of the pruning in the past has 
been done in the Winter season, but the 
growers here in South Jersey are grad¬ 
ually taking up Summer pruning for 
apples and pears, as they find it tends 
to check the excessive growth of wood, 
and induces the development of the fruit 
buds. If the trees are young and vig¬ 
orous they should be pruned in Summer, 
but if they are old or weak, the Winter 
pruning will start stronger growth, pro¬ 
vided the trees are not too weak and too 
severely pruned. In pruning one must 
remember that the tree must depend on 
the leaves to elaborate the crude sap be¬ 
fore it is available for forming new wood 
or fruit, and if too much of the leaf sur¬ 
face is removed from the weak tree there 
will be a very slow recovery and in some 
cases the tree will even become weaker. 
.Judicious pruning will, as a rule, induce 
a strong healthy growth of wood which 
produces more and better fruit. 
Many people have a mistaken idea re¬ 
garding the real value and reasons for 
the “heading in’’ or cutting back of 
young growth in fruit trees. The case 
of the pear trees shown in the picture il¬ 
lustrates the effect of heading in too 
short during the early life of the tree. 
Some growers go to the other extreme 
and do not cut back at all. They just 
thin out intersecting branches and let 
PEAR TREES 
HEADED HIGH. 
V\ hen asked if paint and other means of 
protection had been applied to the cuts, 
he said there had not. That is only one of 
many cases of jobs half or carelessly 
done, followed by failure and the pre¬ 
judice of many against modern orchard 
practice. Another man claims that little 
or no pruning should be done, but that 
the trees should “get the bearing habit.” 
That man’s trees are a sad sight as far 
as appearance goes, and though he had 
a fair crop, of fruit this year it was not 
of high quality. 
The cut shows one man’s idea of the 
proper height to head pear trees. He 
said he wanted to get under the limbs 
with a horse. These trees are about six 
years old, and are headed over 4y> feet 
high; this makes a tree that has little 
chance when a high wind comes and 
finds it full of fruit. This man will also 
have a difficult job when he starts pick¬ 
ing his fruit. Such trees as these are 
more apt to be injured by tools and har¬ 
ness than trees headed lower. The pic¬ 
ture shows how the trees lean, caused by 
high winds and no protection. Some 
trees in this orchard, which have been 
headed much lower, are not affected by 
the wind. These trees were cut back so 
severely during the second and third 
years that the tops are nearly all one 
to three-year wood. This man thought 
that cutting the trees back, leaving little 
or no wood of the current year’s growth, 
would force the growth into the trunks 
and make them stronger. He would 
have had much better results if he had 
taken one-quarter or one-third of each 
year’s growth off, or better yet, have gone 
over the trees during the growing sea¬ 
son and clipped the tips of the shoots 
when they had attained the propet 
length, or about 1(> to 18 inches. This 
would check the lateral growth of the 
twigs and have a tendency to increase 
their diameter. The writer has followed 
this plan and finds that it gives a strong 
the trees make all the lateral growth 
they can. This usually produces a tree 
with weak slender main limbs, which 
are not able to hold up the heavy load 
of wood and fruit they might have held, 
had they been pruned to a length more 
in proportion with the diameter. 
R. ». GILMAN. 
Manure, for Fruit Trees. 
I set several acres last Spring to apple 
and peach trees. I was told not to man¬ 
ure the trees when 1 set them out but 
wait until this Spring to manure them. 
I obeyed my instructions, excepting two 
rows of peach trees, about 40 trees long, 
which trees were set down a row already 
manured with horse manure for can¬ 
taloupes, (in order to get the rows the 
same distance apart this was necessary). 
1 find that the trees set in the rows 
where the manure was, have made four 
times the growth of the others where 
there was no manure in the rows. I 
wish to know what is best to manure 
these trees with this Spring, and also if 
it is best to spray these young trees? 
If so at what time, and what mixture 
to spray with? e. w. t. 
The advice not to manure those trees 
was good. When the trees are sot in a 
field where the other crop is heavily man¬ 
ured, you will in the end do the trees 
more harm than good by piling on more 
manure. While they may make a quick 
and active growth of wood, this is not 
an indication of the best tree. This ten¬ 
der wood is far more subject to disease 
and danger from frost than a shorter 
growth of hard, solid development. 
When the tree is forced so hard from the 
first, fruiting is often delayed, for the 
tree is started into wood rather than 
fruit production. We should spray those 
trees, by all means, with lime-sulphur, 
but not use manure when planting. It 
would be far better to use a mixture of 
three parts fine bone, and one part mur¬ 
iate of potash, about two pounds of the 
mixture scattered around each young 
tree, and well worked into the soil. 
Maloney Trees 
are grown on our own farms, budded on the 
finest branched root, imported seedlings money 
can buy. Mr. A. E. Maloney watches over 
our stock from the time the seedlings arrive 
until the trees start for your or- 
1. Every care is taken to deliver -r Mb 
True to Name and 
Absolutely Healthy Trees [ lMmj 
for we propagate from varieties of merit and only'sell what trees i 
we grow ourselves, here in this, the most favorable Nursery section 
of the United States, where the San Jos6 Scale is positively un- • \\Llt j 
known. During our 29 years of selling direct from Nursery to ■ tirefliy 
planter, we have built a permanent business, equipped to handle 
our own Nursery stock in such an economical manner that we can amI 
offer hMS- 
Quality Trees at Very Low Prices 
We know just what it costs to grow, sell and ship every tree. 
We are satisfied with a reasonable profit. Our prices are fixed ' ItS 
Rare 
VaI« eS 
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KINGS 
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KING BROS. NURSERIES, Dansville, N. Y. Est. 1878 
APPLE Trees, 2-yr., 5 to 7 ft. @ S120.00 per l.OOO. 
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Every fruit grower and farmer should 
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It lists the best of all tested, profitable 
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Get Prices on Delicious Apple 
This, the world’s prize apple, originat¬ 
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Last Call for J. H. Hale Peach 
You will have to act quick if you want 
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The genuine William P. Stark quality, at 
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William P. Stark Nurseries, Box 772, Stark City, Mo. 1 
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