The Garden Magazine, March, 1924 
51 
Though only the second summer after its fairly severe ren¬ 
ovation pruning (see opposite page) this Greening Apple 
tree is already becoming slightly too dense at the top 
stand straight up from it, or those which grow from below and 
hang directly beneath the limbs are also undesirable. This 
leaves the lateral branches that spread their surfaces flat to the 
sun to carry the crop. 
Improving the Quality of Your Crop 
N O RULE can be made as to the amount of wood to remove 
from any tree. Each tree is an individual and offers its 
own problem. As an indication of the effect of pruning on the 
quality of the crop, the results of a pruning demonstration at 
the home of Senator Emmor Roberts, at Moorestown, N. J., are 
typical. 
Some Rome Beauty Apple trees were thoroughly pruned, and 
the results compared with the thick, brushy trees. On the well- 
pruned trees, fifty-four per cent, of the apples were over three 
inches in size, while on the brushy trees only thirty per cent, 
were over three inches. Only eight per cent, were two and one- 
half inches in size on the well-pruned trees, while thirty-four 
per cent, on the brushy trees ran two and one-half inches. 1 he 
total crop of the brushy trees averaged 25.4 bushels per tree, 
while that of thoroughly pruned trees averaged 20.4 bushels per 
tree. When it is considered that these yields were secured the 
first year after the heavy pruning, before fruiting wood could be 
developed on the inner, lower branches, the reduction is not as 
serious as it might appear, and should grow less with each 
succeeding year. It is also considerably compensated for by 
the great increase in the size and value of the fruit. A 2.5 per 
cent, increase of apples having 50 per cent, or more red color 
also accompanied the increase in size. 
same manner as when pruning his Peach trees, stimulating a 
tremendous growth of new sprouts but no crops. Four years 
ago he set out another block of Stayman trees, pruning very light¬ 
ly, bending his efforts to the proper development of the scaffold 
branches, and doing very little other cutting. This past fall the 
trees bore a scattered crop ranging from an apple or so to as 
much as almost a half-basket per tree. 
How to Treat the Mature Tree 
B EARING Apple trees require quite different tactics, be¬ 
cause they are developed and at work, so that there is less 
danger of reducing the crop by pruning treatments. The end 
in view in such cases is to see that sunlight can get through the 
head to the lower branches, that the fruiting wood is reduced to 
an amount readily supported by the tree, that weak branches 
are shortened back to strengthen them, and that long rangy 
branches which would carry the growth of the tree skyward, are 
properly shortened. 
The response to a pruning cut is greatest on that part of the 
limb immediately adjoining the cut. Therefore bulk pruning, 
by the removal of a few large limbs, will not give the results 
desired. Detailed pruning throughout the head—the removal 
of small twigs and branches wherever the tree has become dense 
and brushy—is essential. 
This should not be taken to mean that large branches are 
never to be removed. A few such branches must frequently 
be removed before any satisfactory detailed pruning can be done. 
Even one or two scaffold branches four or five inches in diameter 
may have to be cut out. 
The first step, then, is to remove any excess large branches. 
The second step is to thin out and open up the top of the tree. 
If the tree has reached a sufficient height, say eighteen to twenty 
feet, the leader branches may be tipped back to well-developed 
side branches, running toward the outside of the tree. These 
can usually be found in abundance by cutting back into two- 
year-old wood on the leaders. Thus the tree can be kept from 
growing any taller. 
The third step is to thin out the growth around the sides. 
This is the part which takes the most time, and which is most 
likely to be slighted. A stepladder and lopping shears supple¬ 
mented by a good pcle-pruner are perhaps the most useful tools 
for this work. Crossing branches should be removed or short¬ 
ened so that they no longer interfere. Twigs and small branches 
which grow from the top of a limb and bend down along it, or 
Note the strengthening of fruit spurs and the growth of new 
wood a year after pruning (same tree as shown above) which 
promises an increase in size and beauty of apples to be borne 
