3. The remora/ of end buds forces mit the side bads. The main shout cannot lengthen after its terminal bud is removed.
4. Thinning the top lets in light and air, enabling the leaves to do more tecn•k mid so increasing the rigor of the plant.
5. Checking of growth by removing terminal buds turns the energies of the plant toward fruit-producing. It is a similar checking which sets an injured or a diseased tree to bearing seeds profusely.
6. Unchecked by pruning, fruit trees tend to oeer-p•odnetion of wood.
7. Summer In lessens the strugyle (imam, leares and twigs, and enables the sli•rivors to mature numerous st•ony fruit buds.
S. Winter penning/ induces the production, of 91-eW wood and, by thin niny the bads, prothlOCS fewer brrtfiner tower,~ nr fruits.
A01/001 Praniny. Fruit trees are many and various. So are the ideals of their owners. Modes of pruning vary to correspond. Usually, however, size and quality of fruit are more desired than numbers. Therefore, the thinning of the top in winter or early spring is very commonly practiced. A little thinning every year is preferable to heavy ',innings less often, for the latter method is likely to disturb the balance, and set to \yowl-forming the energies that should be making fruit.
For another reason the cutting off of large limbs is bad business in pruning fruit trees. Most of the fruit is borne on the outer sur face of the tree, on \ vood but a few seasons old. The bearing area of an apple tree, for instance, is a dome of moderate thickness sup ported by the trunk and the framework of large limbs, both compar atively barren of leaves and fruit. When an old limb is removed a large portion is cut out of the fruit-bearing dome. It is not uncom mon to Jet an orchard go unlearned until the lower limbs of adjacent trees interlace. Then the owner trims up" his trees by cutting off all limbs that touch their neighbors. Finally his trees have lost so much that their bearing tops look like Japanese parasols. if the side branches had been pinched back year by year to keep them from growing so long, this sacrifice of the lower limbs would have been unnecessary. Consider how small a crop of apples such a "trimmed " tree can bear each year, and the difficulty and the expense of picking fruit that is so far from the ground.
Heading in. Th_ere is no universal rule for pruning lint this:
"Begin early in the of the tree and keep it under control by yearly pruning." A. man shapes his trees to his liking. if he wants low, round headed trees, he cuts back each season's growth. This method is known as heading Dwarf trees are pruned in this manner. and all trees which it is desired to force into early bearing. 'h make large trees. wood production is encouraged by leaving the strongest shoots, and thinning out all weak a»d interfering brandies. Fruit-bearing is thus deferred until a large frame is developed.
Intensi•e CHltirtition. In this country where labor is high-priced and land is cheap, fruit trees are generally grown in orchards, and only rich peo ple train them to supports in "espalier fashion. In Europe where land is highlwiced and labor is cheap it is very common to train the trees oil walls and trellises somewhat as we train grape vines. Fruit of the highest perfection is the result of this careful training, and the high cultivation that goes with it.
P•titim/ is (1 cost awl complictded sia?jeet. All that is known about pruning has been learned by experiment. If education is his aim, the amateur call get plenty of it by beginning where the race began and pruning his trees with Ids mind unbiased by the opinions of others. If productiveness is Ids object, he would better fortify himself with Bailer's •• Pruning Book," or some good manual of fruit-growing. Experience is a good teacher, but her instruction comes high.
How to Poore ,5hdc Tires. Sliade trees require only such pruning as shall keep their limbs within reasonable bounds and in good health. The object is to preserve time natural form and to produce as large a tree as possible. All broken and interfering limbs should be carefully removed and the wounds covered, as has been fully directed. In other words, shade trees need only trimming and the removal of dead w mod. And since trimming or shaping a tree is a matter of taste, it behooves the owner to direct such work personally, instead of leaving it to hired men, who are often ignorant. although they may claim to be " expert pruners." For the person who has only a few shade trees to take care of the sugges tions above will be finite sufficient.