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Show BEST TIME TO PRUNE TRANSPLANTED TREES Early Spring Has Been Most Generally Recommended. Fear Has Been Expressed That Branches Cut Back In Fall Will Not Dry Out Sufficiently Results Re-sults of Missouri Station. The time to prime transplanted trees, and young trees not to be trans- . planted, has been much discussed. Harts spring has been most generally I recommended. It Is the usual custom to prime back the branches of young trees when they are transplanted. Some writers hnve recommended de laving pruning bad fall transplanted trees until spring. The precaution of-I ten urged against cutting hack the branches In the fall Is that the tree loses loo much moisture through the. cut surfaces of the twigs. Ktnr has been expressed that the cut bnck branches will dry out sutllclently t' kill back badly during winter. The j question naturally arises as to whether more water will be lost through tl . wounds of the cut twigs than would be transpired from the branches were they left Intact. In order to answer this question for Missouri conditions, which are more or less typical of the centrnl states, general observations have been made on young trees pruned at different sen-sons sen-sons at the University of Missouri ' College of Agriculture In the last twenty jetirs. The results uniformly Indicate that better growth results If I the branches are cut back In the fall. This holds true for young trees gener- I ally, whether they are transplanted In the fall or spring or are not trnns-vilantcd. trnns-vilantcd. The same observations are true of grapes. A Skillful grape propagator I and grower at I iermaun. Mo., has found that grapes make better growth If pruned hack In the full. This grower i sets his CUttlngN in autumn as soon OS the vines si cd their leaves and thereby successfully roots Norton CynthianS and other varieties found t( root with difficulty if the cuttings an I made unci set in early spring. H further says that one year-old grapes designed to stand n second year In tin nursery, make much better growth It pruned back In the fall; also that bearing grape vines make stronget growth If pruned In nutumn as soon ns their leaves are shed. This Is par-tlculsrly par-tlculsrly true of varieties that tend to make poor renewnl growth from the lower spurs. That the water content of young apple trees la not greatly affected h fall pruning was established by experiments ex-periments In 1000 and tgOl at the Unl-verslty Unl-verslty of Missouri. Little difference In water Content was found between apple trees transplant! d In late fall and those which were not transplanted. Also, the trees whose branches were pruned hack In lnte autumn Contained, on the average, slightly more water than those which retained their branches. While this difference Is not great It at least Indicates that the pruned branches did not suffer from drjlng out through the wounds, but that on the contrary the pruned trees dried out slightly less than those which were not pruned. |