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Show OBTAIN DIFFERENT RESULTS BY PRUNING : ft -J t . v i- ? ? ' t I v ' i EAD PRUNING CAUSES BEARING AT EXTREMITIES OF BRANCHES. (Prepared by the United States Department Depart-ment of Agriculture.) There are several different results to be obtained by pruning fruit trees, namely : 1. To keep the tree within bounds, so that the work of spraying and of picking the fruit can be done with the greatest facility. 2. To remove dead or interfering branches. 3. To open the top of the tree to admit ad-mit air and sunshine, and to reduce the struggle for existence among the branches. 4. To thin the fruit and stimulate the development of fruit buds. 5. To make the tree stocky and increase its vigor. There are differences of opinion as to the best ways of pruning to secure the results desired, but most successful success-ful growers admit that regular pruning prun-ing is desirable. Each grower in pruning prun-ing his trees has in mind the securing of some definite objects, though he may not know just what the principles of pruning are. Each tree furnishes a problem in itself, but if the principles prin-ciples are understood these problems can be solved. Avoid Bad Crotches. are vigorous can be renovated, and ! their usefulness prolonged a number of years. High-headed trees with their bearing wood at the extremities of long branches are not only difficult to spray, but the work of picking the fruit is troublesome and expensive. Such trees may be headed back and the fruiting wood brought within convenient con-venient reach. Trees like peaches may be cut back to a few short arms near the trunk, and the tree allowed to form an entirely new head. With apples ap-ples and pears severe heading Is not to be recommended. With old trees, where the head is so high that in order to materially reduce the workable height the branches would have to be nearly all cut away, it is questionable whether the renovation Is profitable. Old trees which are vigorous and which are of varieties that are not desirable may be headed back and the tops grafted into desirable varieties. This top-working is done by budding in the case of peaches and by cleft grafting in the case of other kinds of fruit trees. The new top is formed as low down as is consistent with the vigor of the tree and the size of the branches. Renovation. In all renovation or rejuvenation or fruit trees there is more to be considered con-sidered than just pruning and top-working. top-working. Old orchards have usually been neglected in regard to cultivation, spraying, and fertilizing, as well as pruning. After the trees have been deheaded and all rubbish in the orchard or-chard cleared up and burned, a good spraying with lime-sulphur should be. given. This spray will kill any scale insects that may be in the orchard and will help to clean up the trees. Whenever When-ever the season permits, the land can be broken and clean culture given. If the orchard has been in sod for a number num-ber of years, and especially with some leguminous crop, the soil will probably prob-ably contain a good deal of vegetable matter; but if not, then this material may be supplied by giving the land a good dressing of stable manure. An application of 300 pounds of acid phos-pjate phos-pjate and 150 pounds of muriate or sulphate of potash per acre, scattered around under the outer extremities of the limbs and between the rows and harrowed in, will be very beneficial to the production of good crops of fruit. After a tree is planted it Is headed back to a single unbranched stem or a stem with several branches, depending depend-ing on the size and age of the tree. The second season several of these stubs or new branches are selected to form the scaffold limbs of the tree. Care should be taken to have these three or four spread out well along the main stem so as to avoid bad crotches later. The branches selected are headed back 10 or 12 inches. The third season two or three branches are allowed to remain on each of these scaffold limbs, and all others cut off. The branches selected this time should be located so as to balance evenly and keep open the top of the tree. The fourth season the operation is repeated repeat-ed on the limbs of the preceding season's sea-son's growth. In all later prunings care should be used to save fruit spurs and keep the bearing wood low and well distributed throughout the tree. In pruning, all cuts should be made close to the parent branch, leaving no' stubs which might later decay back and injure the tree. All wounds of more than an inch in diameter should be painted. The correct principle seems to be to do the least cutting possible and yet get the results desired. A great deal of the cutting done in winter may be avoided by a little judicious pinching back of buds during the summer. This pinching back prevents the growth of branches that must be removed later and permits better growth in the branches that are desired. Thinning. The purpose of thinning is to reduce the quantity of fruit which a tree sets to a quantity that it can mature and at the same time develop fruit buds for the next year's crop. An excessive crop usually means small and often poorly colored fruit, and the overloading overload-ing frequently breaks down the limbs of the tree. The development of seeds Is an exhaustive process on a tree, and the growth of seeds in small fruits is as depleting as in the case of large fruits; thus thinning relieves the tree of a severe strain. In the case of winter apples it is quite likely that annual bearing is encouraged by thinning, thin-ning, for it gives more opportunity for the development of fruit buds. Summer varieties of apples require several pickings, and each of these pickings may in a way be called a system sys-tem of thinning. With stone fruits, especially peaches, thinning has become be-come an established practice among most commercial growers. How much and when to thin depends on conditions. condi-tions. The usual time of thinning is just after the so-called June drop. The ' amount to thin varies with the kind of fruit and the variety. With some varieties vari-eties it is not always profitable, and the extra drain on the tree by the production pro-duction of seed enn be overcome by fertilizing. Peaches are usually thinned to about five or six inches apart on the limbs. Orchard Renovation. Many orchards contain trees which, swing to old age, neglect of pruning, Insects, or disease, have beoome tin- j irofi table. AIJ of these trees which 1 |