New YorK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 531 
heavy winds at blooming time, but still there are some varieties 
of pears, apples, grapes and plums at least that are self-sterile. 
The remedy is mixed planting of varieties that bloom at the 
Same time. It is important that the fruit of all of the varie- 
ties planted have value as it is not worth while to encumber 
land with a sort fit only for a pollinator. Contrary to a very 
general notion the fruits themselves are not greatly changed, 
if at all, by cross-pollination. 
Pruning is almost prehistoric in origin and is popularly sup- 
posed to be the kindergarten operation in fruit growing, yet as 
now practiced it is a hit-and-miss cutting, sawing, chopping 
and shearing out of shoots, twigs, branches and limbs, desig- 
nated by such expressive terms as “ cutting-back,” ‘ heading 
in,” “ dehorning,”’ and ‘ thinning out the wood.” There must 
always be a difference in the details of pruning but there are 
a few general facts and principles which every fruit grower 
should have well by heart. These, briefly stated, run about as 
follows: 
Ist. Winter pruning increases the vigor of the plant. 
2d. Summer pruning decreases the vigor of the plant. 
3d. Root pruning decreases the vigor of a plant. 
4th. Prune weak growing varieties heavily in the winter; 
strong growing sorts, lightly. 
5th. Suckers or watersprouts are often the effect of over- 
pruning. 
6th. Heading-in thickens the top. 
7th. Checking growth by girdling, notching or twisting may 
induce fruitfulness but at the expense of vigor. 
Sth. Heavy pruning young trees delays fruiting. 
9th. All pruning must take into account the habit of 
growth of the tree. | 
10th. Some fruits bear on this year’s wood, others on that 
of last year, and still others on older growths; pruning must 
take the age of bearing wood into account. 
A man can care for his trees better if he makes a sharp dis- 
tinction between pruning and training trees, The operations of 
