844 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Commercial Fruit Culture 
Pruning Old Apple .Yeex 
Many people, especially hoj-inner.s. when 
about to prune a tree, experience consid¬ 
erable difficulty in deciding where to be¬ 
gin. and just what to do This might be 
overcome to a great extent if one under¬ 
stands the real object of pruning, the 
main principle and the good and bad re¬ 
sults of different methods. Primarily we 
prune to get rid of excess wood: that is. 
wood which would never bear fruit, and 
which would prevent fruit-bearing branch¬ 
es from receiving their proper amount of 
sunlight. The first thing to do is to re¬ 
move lower branches, heading only high 
enough to work under comfortably with a 
team or tractor In the early part of the 
Summer. About the time fruit develops 
enough to weight down the branches work 
will have been discontinued in most or¬ 
chards. The ease and cheapness of pick¬ 
ing fruit from such branches makes them 
too desirable to be dispensed with. 
Next, cut out suckers or water sprouts 
and all dead wood, and then one is ready 
to begin the actual shaping of the tree. 
Remove enough branches from the center 
to allow the sunlight to reach till parts. 
A few minutes’ careful survey of each tree 
before further pruning will determine the 
main structural limbs of et ch tree. With 
these main structural limbs always in 
mind, we now cut out everything that in¬ 
terferes with their proper development. 
A successful pruner never hesitates* to 
take out good, healthy, fruit-bearing 
brandies when they seriously interfere 
with these limbs. Many make the great 
mistake of postponing their removal a 
year, and others make the still greater 
mistake of never removing them, knowing 
it means the temporary reduction of the 
yield of fruit. Among the first of these 
to remove are the limbs that grow back¬ 
ward into the tree, as these are soon over¬ 
shadowed by the main limbs, which stop 
their growth and make them unproductive. 
Resides they are likely to cross and rub 
other limbs. 
When limbs afid branches cross, and 
rub, one of these .should always be re¬ 
moved, unless they cross so near their 
bases that there is no friction. I consider 
this important, as branches soon become 
so scarred from the rubbing that not 
enough nourishment reaches the fruit to 
properly develop it. After these essential 
operations have been attended to one 
should devote some time to the less im¬ 
portant but necessary work that finishes 
the pruning of a tree. Limbs that are too 
long are liable to break with a load of 
fruit and should he shortened. This also 
helps make the tree symmetrical. Most 
trees, unless properly pruned every year, 
develop too many branches along their 
main limbs. These should be trimmed 
enough so that the remaining ones have 
ample room for future development. I>o 
not make the mistake, however, of strip¬ 
ping these main limbs of all the little 
fruit spurs, just to make ilie tree look 
neater. 
If there is a wide gap left by a broken 
limb, numerous suckers almost always 
shoot out in an endeavor to replace the j 
missing wood. Rather than remove all 
of these, two or three of the sturdiest 
should be left. It is important to shorten 
these if they lengthen out too much, in 
order to strengthen the limb and encour¬ 
age fruit spurs. The upright limbs in the 
top of a tree should also be shortened to 
keep the tree from growing taller. Fast¬ 
growing trees often shoot up numerous 
suckers in the top. and these should be 
trimmed and the remaining ones shortened 
in the same manner. If this practice is 
closely followed year after yeai dishorn¬ 
ing will be unnecessary. I consider it 
wise to use au.i measures that will pre¬ 
vent dishorning, -a.- that operation will 
make a tree profitless for tears. 
While pruning a tree all cankerous 
growth should he cut away'. If any or¬ 
chard ban not been properly sprayed, co¬ 
coons and collections of caterpillar eggs 
will ’be found, and this is an excellent 
time t*< remove them. 
The importance of burning all brush 
cannot be overestimated. A pile of brush 
in the neighborhood of an orchard is a j 
source of contagion that even constant 
spraying will find it hard to overcome. 
In priming always be sure to cut close 
and leave no stubs. Many a fine tree has 
been utterly ruined by the presence of 
such .stubs, as they will not heal over be¬ 
fore moisture enters and rots them and 
eventually the whole trunk of the tree. 
When trees have been long neglected and 
are greatly overgrown, caution should be 
used not t<> prune too much in one year. 
Excessive pruning will almost always 
result in too much wood growth, which 
will surely reduce the yield of fruit, and 
in some cases step it for several years. 
Besides, the remaining limbs will some¬ 
times be so weak and unsupported that 
an ordinary crop of apples will often put 
them far enough out of shape to prevent 
them regaining their old positions, and 
thus they never grow properly. 
On the other baud if pruning is ex¬ 
tended over three or four years and only 
a little wood is taken out each year, these 
mistakes will he avoided. Instead of the 
main limbs being weak and unsupported, 
they will make a continuous, slow growth 
that makes for sturdiness and strength. 
From my own experience with this meth¬ 
od of pruning I have found that each 
year the crop has increased in size, mean¬ 
ing financial gain instead of the total less 
that often follows the other method. 
New Jersey. eakle mlatusti. 
Failure of Apples to Set Fruit 
I have about 40 Gilliflower apple trees 
grafted on Streaked Pippin. I bought the 
farm 13 years ago, and in the 13 years 
have not had more than two to five bush¬ 
els of Gilliflower apples to the tree per 
year. They are trees that should have 
from 5 to 10 barrels per tree. They are 
good, healthy and thrifty-looking trees, 
and white with blossoms every year, but 
cannot make them set. 1 have given the 
best of care to them, along with my others, 
as Baldwin and King, with which I have 
no fault to find. Could you give me in¬ 
formation in regard to these trees, so as 
to make them set? The trees must be in 
the neighborhood of 50 years old. R. v. 
New York. 
Causes for this condition may be as¬ 
signed to two general classes; failure of 
the blossoms to receive proper polleniza- 
tiou, and failure of the tree to obtain 
sufficient plant food ■'to develop the fertil¬ 
ized blossoms. 
Frost or Winter injury at times de¬ 
stroys pollen or ovules, or both, without 
apparent injury to the petals, and, while 
the tree may seem, from casual observa¬ 
tion. to be in full blossom, with abundant 
promise of a bountiful harvest, the in¬ 
clement weather lias already doomed the 
fruit. With most varieties fruit will not 
set to any extent without the visitation 
of those insects which carry pollen from 
blossom to blossom and insure fertiliza¬ 
tion. Cold, rain or high winds may so 
interfere with these insects as materially 
to cut down the crop. Pollen is easily 
destroyed by rain, and when this is ac¬ 
companied by cold, it is many hours after 
the storm is over before a new supply of 
viable pollen is available. In all types of 
fruit self-sterile varieties are more or less 
numerous. Such need to receive pollina¬ 
tion from some other sort. Recently we 
have begun to realize the importance of 
certain fruits of group sterility—groups of 
varieties which are sterile one to the 
other and which must receive pollen from 
sorts outside the group. To what extent 
this may hold in the apple we do not 
know. 
The flower bud commences to form early 
in the preceding Summer. A shortage of 
plant food at this time may result in a 
May 17, 1019 
failure to blossom or in the formation of 
ovules and pollen lacking in vitality. In 
her attempts to reproduce the species, 
nature is a prodigal. With sufficient 
plant food available during the Summer 
many more flower buds are formed than 
the tree is capable of bringing to maturity 
as represented by the ripe fruit. After 
pollination each cluster has certain fruits 
which, for oue cause or another, are able 
to appropriate a larger proportion of the 
available plant food. The “.Tune drop” is 
made up of those fruits which failed to 
receive proper pollination or which were 
crowded out by their more fortunate 
neighbors. 
The Black Gilliflower apples about 
which R. A', writes are usually good crop¬ 
pers. They blossom somewhat later than 
most of our commercial apples, yet it is 
doubtful if the difference is great enough 
to prevent them receiving sufficient pollen 
even if the variety should prove self-ster¬ 
ile. The most likely causes of the trees 
failing to set fruit fall in our second 
class -those which influence fruit forma¬ 
tion through the food supply. Yet R. 
V. writes of his trees as “healthy and 
thrifty looking.” If they are not now 
under thorough cultivation this would be 
the first thing to look to: if they are, a 
moderate Summer pruning about the first 
of August should be tried. This, by de¬ 
creasing the number of buds, will enable 
the remainder to obtain a greater pro¬ 
portionate amount of the plant food at 
the critical time when the flower buds 
are just beginning to form. 
[PROF.] V. P. HEDRICK. 
Geneva. N. Y., Experiment Station. 
“Wiiat we want now is reconstruct¬ 
ion.” "1 don't know.” replied the weary 
little woman. "I’m getting kind o’ tired 
of making over my last year’s clothes.”— 
Washington Star. 
This cross section of ez Ford engine 
shows to..are sediment in the oil gathers 
Showing sediment formed 
after SUO miles of running 
This cross section of a Ford engine 
shows huts Veedol reduces sediment 
Is sediment shortening the life of your engine? 
19 places where sediment damages important parts 
H OW long will your engines 
stand up? Will your auto¬ 
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Some cars run for 15,000 miles 
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These are the cars which will still 
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Why ordinary oil fails to 
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Ordinary oil breaks down under 
the terrific heat of the engine—200° 
Where sediment damages 
engines 
1. Cylinder walls; 2. pistons; 3. pis¬ 
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generator shaft bearings; 18. oil cir¬ 
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to 1000° F. Large quantities of 
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the center of the page. 
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problem 
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top of the page. 
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Veedol Department 
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grade oi Veedol 
I 
