PRUNING MATURE TREES* 
O. B. WHIPPLE 
INTRODUCTION. 
Many and varied are the excuses offered by the man who owns 
an unpruned orchard; he is ashamed of the neglected trees and tries 
to justify himself by advancing what he considers, or more likely 
what he tries to persuade himself, is a good reason. One holds that 
pruning is little short of sacrilege, contrary to the laws of nature; 
another tells of his fond recollections of childhood and what ex¬ 
cellent fruits he picked from the old apple tree, pruned alone by 
nature; another says it does not pay, and in his particular case it 
does not, for the chances are that the orchard is neglected otherwise. 
The only excuse that has any semblance of justification is that of 
ignorance, and that does not excuse the man who makes no attempt. 
Nature’s object is the production of seed with provision for its dis¬ 
tribution, and she is satisfied when a cherry is produced with enough 
flesh to attract some fruit-loving bird that may, perchance, drop the 
seed far from the parent tree. Man grows the fruit for its fleshy 
parts, and tries to improve these parts, as much by placing the plant 
in a more favorable environment, as by plant breeding and selection. 
The man who has the fond recollections of childhood would no 
doubt find them only childish fancies, as did the man who returned 
to his childhood home and tried coasting, he would be disappointed. 
The man who cannot afford to prune, cannot afford to grow fruit, 
and the man who does not know how to prune must learn; the prin¬ 
ciples are not complicated. 
PHYSIOLOGY OP PRUNING. 
To be an intelligent pruner one must know something of plant 
physiology. He should know the effects produced by pruning at 
different seasons of the year, how to make a cut that will heal most 
readily, and the influence of pruning on the fruit bearing habit of the 
tree. It may be said that in Colorado the fruit grower prunes at his 
leisure, but luckily this conforms pretty closely to the proper season, 
when looked at from a physiological point of view. It is generally 
conceded that pruning during the dormant season incites wood 
growth, while pruning during the growing season promotes fruit¬ 
fulness; and, since our trees tend to overbear, it is logical for us 
to prune largely during the dormant season. 
Although it is said that pruning during the summer season 
may encourage the formation of fruit buds on tardy bearing varie¬ 
ties, it may have the opposite effect, unless done at the proper time, 
*This bulletin is supplementary, to Bulletin No. 106, by Prof W. 
Paddock, which deals with the pruning and training of young trees. 
