Pruning Mature Trees. 17 
good crops, there is less trouble about its shedding. Some other 
varieties are more tardy about blooming, and heavy pruning dur¬ 
ing the dormant season would only augment this objectionable 
character. Such varieties often respond to June pruning; and, if 
they do not, girdling in June will often prove beneficial. In gird¬ 
ling, a strip of bark one-quarter of an inch in width and extending 
entirely around the trunk may be removed; but perhaps a safer plan 
is to remove vertical strips of bark one and one-half inches in width, 
leaving other strips of about the same width intact. If the wood is 
uninjured these wounds soon heal and do not permanently injure 
the tree. 
It is difficult to say just how much the pear should be pruned; 
the grower will have to decide that for himself. The main object 
of pruning the mature tree should be to thin the fruit and thus im¬ 
prove the quality, as well as to encourage more regular bearing. 
However, the grower must not feel that pruning will take the place 
of thinning entirely; to get the best results the two must go together. 
The subject of pruning the pear could hardly be considered 
complete without some reference to the control of pear blight. 
While it is true that when once the pear tree is inoculated with 
blight, we must lay aside many of our ideas about pruning and cut 
to remove the affected parts, it is also true that, in a way, the tree 
may be trained to reduce to a minimum the loss from attacks of 
this disease.. After the tree begins to bear, heavy pruning which 
may induce rampant growth should be avoided, if possible, as it is 
generally conceded that blight is more destructive to trees making 
rank growth. The majority of inoculations take place through the 
blossoms, and one of the most serious types of injury is that oc¬ 
casioned by the entrance of blight into larger limbs through short 
spurs. -Through these short spurs the germs gain entrance to the 
larger limbs and often girdle them before discoloration indicates 
their presence. It is the nature of the pear tree to develop these 
short spurs in abundance, and it will be necessary to remove them 
from the base of the larger limbs. Strong new wood may be al¬ 
lowed to take their places, which may later be developed into fruit¬ 
ing branches. Then should blight enter these blossoms, they are 
far enough removed from the main limbs that the disease may be 
detected and intercepted before it reaches them. 
PRUNING THE PLUM. 
Under this head is grouped a large number of species and 
varieties of fruit differing widely in their habits of growth and of 
fruit bearing. Were it not for the fact that common practice seems 
to discourage the pruning of many varieties to any considerable 
extent, this would be a difficult subject to handle; no well defined 
