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DAILY CAPITAL JOUENAL, 8ALEM, OEEOON, THTJBSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1911
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Trees Often Overprunod and There Is Much Danger of Doing Work So That
Bearing Capabilities Will Be Seriously Endangered Training Tree to Look
Well Not Seal Object Questions Which Must Be Left to Judgment of Per
ion Doing Pruning An Article Which Every Fruitgrower Should Bead.
BY V. B. GARDNER,
(Oregon Experiment Station, Corvallis.)
Ask the avorage fruitgrower why he
is in the orchard business and he will
give you any one of a mimbor. of an
swers, depending upon how he inter
prets your question. He may tell you
he is growing fruit ax a side line, as
an avocation; it may be that Ilia health
demands that he do outdoor work; pos
sibly he was bought up on a fruit farm
and thus came more or less naturally
into the business. However, regardless
of how they got started, most fruit
growers are in the business primarily
what it will yield In the way of
financial returns. The orchard may be
a means of affording him a living. We
maintain the orchard not primarily for
its looks for the addition it makes to
the landscape, but for what it can do.
Our primary object is to take from it
year nfter year the largest possible
quantities of fruit of the best possible
grades and at tho lowest practicable
costs. Jt is because of this that, we cul
tivate, fertilize, thin, spray, prune and
otherwise care for the trees. This be
ing true, the value of any particular
orchard operation of practice can bo
and should bo measured by the way in
which it influences yield, grades and
cost of production.
If then, we ask tho question "why
do we prune t" our answer Is that fun
damentally we prune to got more fruit
and better fruit, to increase quantity
and quality or to lower its cost per
box. At this point it may be objected
by some that we also prune to secure
a certain shaped tree. That, howevor,
is a matter of training, and pruning
should not be confused with training.
Training has to do with the shaping of
trees, with making them assume ono
form or another. We trim trees with
open or close centers; with round
spreading or tint tops; with many or
few scaffold limbs; with high or low
heads. Hero It should be emphasized
that training does not bavo to do
directly with the functioning, with tho
behavior of tho tree. This Is, ot
course, far from saying thnt training
it not important. A treo trained with
an open center may be much better
adnpted to a certain soil, a certain slope
and a certain amount of humidity than
a cloBo-contorod treo of the same vari
ety. The revorso may bo true of tho
tame variety under an entirely diffore
ont set of conditions. But whether in
training we secure a good shape or a
poor ono for a cortniu variety under
our conditions, training has to do pri
marily with form, On the other hand
wo prune trees to so modify, to so con
trol their fruit habits that larger and
more regular crops of betto fruit will
bo borne. In other words, wa prune to
modify function.
Broadly speaking, we can control the
fruiting habit of fruit trees only in
so far as can control their machinery
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Geo.
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Salem's Old Reliable Music Dealer
III
for fruit production. The flower is
usually regarded as the mechanism that
tho plant constructs for the ultimate
purpose of fruit and seed formation,
but flower formation depends to a
very large extent upon the number of
flower spurs or, as we call them, fruit
spurs, present and upon their behavior,
This is practically thl equivalent of
saying that the fruit spur is the real
machine that the tree builds and
through tho operation of which its
fruit is manufactured. Possibly ex
ception may bo taken to this in tho
case of bearing on one-year-old wood,
but thin rather extraordinary habit of
some varieties (it is understood this
discussion pertains only to apples and
pears) is not general enough to seri
ously conflict with the statements mad a.
At any rate tho fruit spur is the mech
anism that the tree usually employs in
its work of fruit bearing. Without
doubt many factors influence the initial
development and tho Inter health and
vigor and regularity of functioning of
fruit spurs. Indeed thero are good rea
sons to believe that most of our orchard
practices, such as cultivation, fertilisa
tion, spraying, tho uso of cover crops,
etc., influence them oithor directly or
indirectly perhaps mainly indirectly.
Pruning, however, has generally been
looked upon as a practice, almost as
tho practico, through which we directly
influence fruit spurs. All fruitgrowors
know that they can prune them out and
thus rodueo their number. Many bo
liove that by this or that pruning prac
tice thoy can stimulate their formation,
or possibly Increase tholr vigor or
uengthen or shorten their, life, etc.; and
theso beliefs are founded upon careful
observation and experience. To just
what extent the existence, the vigor,
the henlth, tho length of life and the
regularity of bearing of individual fruit
spurs aro influenced by definite prun
ing practices, such as heading In, thin
ning out, summer pinching, etc., is far
from being generally understood. In
other words, wo realize that pruning
influences the fruit spur system of the
treo, the fruit-producing machinery of
tho treo, but we don't realizo how it
Influences it nor to what dogrco.
At this point It will be well to con
sider what wo really desiro In tho way
of fruit spurs on our trees. Looking at
the question from tho viewpoint of
their fruit spurs, when aro our trees
In tho bcBt condition t Do we want the
spurs to be many or few In number?
large or smnllf long lived or short
lived? Hliould wo aim to havo each
bear a fruit every year or every two
years, or overy four, eight or ten years?
Those may seem superflous questions,
but investigation will show that they
aro not, The trees in some orchards
aro full of fruit spurs, those of other
orchards aro relatively much fewer in
number. Tho individual fruit spur in
some orchards average an apple or a
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.Pianos
pear once every two or three years;
those in other orchards average a fruit
only once in four or five or six or eight
or eve nten years. The average length
of life of the fruit spur in some trees
may be three or four years, in others
thirty or forty years. These are ex
tremes, of course, but they represent
facts regarding the fruit manufacturing
machinory in our orchards. Surely all
of these conditions cannot be equally
satisfactory. There must be some of
theso extremes that are distinctly un
desirable. Possibly no extreme is de
sirable. What are tho correct answers
to the questions that have been asked?
If the fruit-spur system of the tree is
its mecbanisirl for fruit production
then is it reasonable that we should
prune (1) to obtain as large a number
of fruit spurs as possible, for within
certain limits to be mentioned later,
the larger the number of fruit manufac
turing machines the larger will be their
total output. And is it not also reason
able that wo should prune (2) to keep
the fruit spurs that we once secure in
as thrifty, vigorous and healthy condi
tion as possible, for the better condi
tion a machine is in the better is the
product that it will turn out.
Pruning Practicos That Encourage.
Jv'ow let us ask what are the pruning
practices that stimulate and encourage
the formation of tho largest possible
number of fruit spurs and what are the
pruning methods and practices thpt
either directly or indirectly limit fruit
spur formation. First, it may bo men
tioned that not a few fruitgrowers de
liberately remove fruit spurs from the
scaffold limbs of their troes. Of course
many orchardists woulj never permit
such pruning in their orchards, but it
i far from uncommon. Tho writer
ell remembers visiting one orchard ot
over 5,0000 largo bearing trees where
tho now manager was having this done.
Tho idea evidently was that the trees
look bettor" when thoy havo perfect
ly smooth limbs, their uurfaco ungrok
en and unmarred by irregular jagged
spurs, Little thought was given to tho
fact that immediate and future yields
were being reduced, that indeed the
part of the treo best able to bear
heavily was probably being rendered
permanently barren. How many people
pruning trees between the ages of two
and five years prune with their future
bearing habit and bearing surfaces in
mind? Probably vory few. To'o many
are inclined to think that at that age
they aro pruning simply to secure vig
orous wood growth and proper shape.
At that stage of treo growth these ques
tions should bo dominant, but that does
not mean that future bearing habit
should be entirely lost sight of. Espe
cially is this truo when pruning treeB
four, five and six years old, If the
branches of young treeB are pruned too
heavily practically all the buds left are
forced into growth. This necessitates
severe thinning and severe heading
back tho following year; and these two
processes kopt up yoar aftor year for
threo or four seasons mean that but
very few buds that can develop into
fruit spurs will bo loft in the lower
anil central part of tho tree. It is prob
ably good practico to pruno heavily
trees that have been set one, two, threo,
four and occasionally five yoars. By
this heavy pruning wood growth is
greatly sitmulated and a large, vigorous
tree wi(h good strong framework can
bo quickly grown. Put when tho timo
nines for the tree to begin to bear tho
kind of pruning employed should bo en
tirely changed, for nn entirely differ
ent type of growth Is wanted. The ener
gies of the tree are to be turned into
MiuHicr direction, or at least they are
to be divided and part of them expend
ed for fruit spur and fruit production.
In terms of pruning practice this ob
ject Is accomplished mainly by compar
atively light pruning for at least a
couple of years. Vet many orchards
that are or have recently reached bear
ing age show that tho ono directing
their pruning has figured (if.iinleed, he
has thought llbeut this particular ques
tion at nil) that the an me type of prun
ing Hint has been giving him excellent
vegetative growth will in some way
nlso give him fruit spurs, though other
conditions have In no way materially
changed. In hardly any other way can
tho frequent heavy pruning of trees be
tween four and eight or ten years of
ii;e be explained. It sometimes seems
as though wo hnve a kind of blind faith
that our trees will somehow come into
bearing without much effort on our
part and In spite ot' almost anything
we can do to prevent it. Consequently
we give little thought to pruning as
it really influences bearing habit.
Limits Fruit Bearing,
What lias just been said regarding
the limitation of the number of fruit
-puis by severly pruning young trees
npplies, with equal force to the severe
pruning of bearing trees, In general
heavy pruning greatly reduces the
number of buds that can develop into
fruit spurs, if it does not actually re
move many, and also forces a large per
rentage of the buds left into vegetative
growth, In extreme cases it force
well formed and properly functioning
fruit spurs into leafy, nun fruiting
shoots. It thus limits the fruit bearing
surface in four distinct wnj. This is
far from stating that heavy pruning l
never desirable; but the fact should he
emphasised that heavy pruning greatly
reduces the amount of the tree's ma
liluery for fruit production. The ques
tion Is here raised, are not many
orchards forced into wood growth year
after year by the heavy pruning that
ther rocelve, when a lighter pruning,
or in extreme cases no pruning at all,
would permit the development of much
needed fruit spurs? It should be stated
here that by "heavy pruning" is meant
just what the term implies, whether
tho removal of top growth consists in
the taking out of a few large limbs or
of many smaller ones, whether it con
sists in the thinning out or the heading
back of branches or of both, whether
the interior or the exterior of the tree
is sacrificed. It may be that few grow
ers pruno heavily as a matter of choice.
They possibly think they have to to
keep their trees in "good shape," re
gardless of what this kind of pruning
does to the fruit spurs. At any rate
the fact remains that heavy pruning is
an exceedingly common orchard prac
tice. Prom what has been said it might be
inferred that no pruning at will give
us the largest possible number of fruit
spurs, as the largest possible number
of buds are left to grow into spurs and
so many Btart that few can develop into
purely vegetative shoots. Theoretically
at least this is probably more or less
true. Practically, however, it is unde
sirable to stimulate, or more accurately
permit fruit-spur formation to proceed
to that extent. This is because we de
sire not so much the greatest possible
number of fruit spurs in the trees as
fruit spurs that healthy, vigorous
and in good condition in every way so
that they will flower and fruit regularly
for many years. Tho health, vigor and
longevity of the fruit spur depend upon
its food and moisture supply and upon
the amount of sunlight it receives. It
is possible for a tree to be so situated
that there is not enough moisture and
food present to supply properly all the
spurs and their developing fruits. It is
also possible for the upper and outer
limbs to be so numerous ami the growth
they make so dense that many of the
inner and lower branches, with their
fruit spurs, receive insufficient; light to
keep them thrifty. Lator these shaded
spurs die off and tho fruiting area of
the tree is thereby reduced. Under
theso circumstances judicious pruning
would so limit tho number of spurs that
thoro would be food and moisture for
all, anil tho branches would be so
thinned that enough sunlight would
filter through the outer and upper part
of tho tree to keep the remaining parts
growing vigorously. Just as too severe
pruning reduces tho number of fruit
spurs, too little pruning weakens thorn,
reduces their vitality, shortens their
life and makes them function irregu
larly. Tho problem of the fruitgrower
then is to maintain the proper balance
between the number of fruit spurs and
their health and vigor. He does not
desiro so many that some of them die
out; ho does not wish for so many that
oven though all live most of them bear
irregularly. On tho other hand, ho does
want as many as the size of the tree
and its food and moisture supply can
keep alivo and healthy and bearing
regularly.
Some Questions.
Tho question that we may now raise
is, how do current pruning practices
maintain life and strength and vigor
of fruit spurs? How do they influcneo
their longevity and tho regularity with
which they bear fruits? How do they
maintain tho proper balance between
number and strength of fruit spurs?
Do they allow too many fruit spurs or
do they go too far in reducing their
numbers? Po they keep tho spurs
strong or do they allow many to die?
A partial answer has nlready been giv
en to this question in discussing the
subject of heavy pruning. Though pos
sibly a smaller percentage of fruit
growers under pnino than over-prune,
too little pruning is without question
the direct cause of small crops and in
terior fruit in many orchards. It. is not
necessary to visit a largo number of
orchards in onle to find evidence of
too light puning. Dead nnd dying fruit
spurs are very common, especially on
older trees. There may bo loss of fruit
spurs from dense shading in over
mined trees nnd there will, of course,
be a certain loss from other perfectly
legitimate causes (a. g., occasional in
juries incident to picking) ill very well
caied for trees, lint in general the dy
ing out of ninny fruit spurs indicates
too title pruning. The fact is that an
exact balance between number and
vigor of fruit spurs, between fruit and
wooil I'tU'luctiou in the trees, ennnot be
maintained. The est we can do is to
maintain an approximate balance, Tho
grower often fulls far short of main
taining this approximate balance be
cause he does not realize that there is
a balance to maintain or does not ap
preciate its real nntnre. This Is not
license ho docs not spend enough time
pruning. Ho realizes that it is one of
tlui most Important of h.s orchard oper
ations. He perhaps studies the prob
lem more assiduously than he does any
other orchard practice.- However, ho
does not approach the problem from
the right angle, view it in the right
light. He Woks upon pruning as a
means of obtaining a tree of a certain
form, of a certain type, and bends the
bet of his energies toward that end.
He uses pruning as a means of modify
ing form when it should really be a
means of modifying function. Conse
quently ho trains his trees instead of
pruning them. In training them he
may incidentally, or accidentally, prune
them, and in the best possible manner,
but if so it i more or less a matter of
coincidence.
Objects of True Pruning.'
Thus far su attempt hss been made
only to point out the fundamental ob-
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jeets of all true pruuing and to present
one or two of the principles underly
ing pruning operations. Incidentally
the inevitable results of too much and
of too little pruning have been men
tioned. It hardly need be added that
the uupruned tree is not necessarily the
best pruned tree; the much-pruned treo
is not necessarily the best-pruned tree;
neither extreme is apt to give the best
results. In fact the contrary is most
apt to be the case. The practical ques
tion at once arises, "how much are we
to prune?" From the very nature o?
tho question, or rather of the subject
with which it deals, no answer can be
given which can be taken as a rule to
be always followed. It is the principles
that have been discussed which underly
tree growth and fruit production that
determine amount of pruning. Only as
these principles are applied to each in
dividual problom as it' arises in other
words, to each individual tree can the
right amount of pruning be done. From
what has been said it is evident that
proper pruning consists in the removal
of just enough wood to afford the
largest possible number of fruit Bpurs,
a good supply of light and food, and
consequently keep them growing vigor
ously and ruiting regularly. A tendency
on the part of the tree to produce
watorsprouts and other wood growth at
the expense of fruit spurs indicates
that too heavy pruning has already been
done. Irregular bearing and dying out
of fruit spurs indicates that too little
pruning or pruning in the wrong part
of the tree, or both, have been faults
of recent years. Lighter pruning in the
first instance and heavier pruning in
the second instance are the correctives.
The person who prunes should glanco
quickly over tho tree, judge quickly
and accurately of the balance (or lack
of it) that exists between vegetative
growth and fruit bearing surface, and
then proceed to restore or maintain this
balance. In its 1iat analysis the ques
tion of amount of pruning becomes a
question of judgment. Iiules cannot be
given, or if given they nro nlmost worse
than useless. They mislead as often,
or more often, than they lead aright.
Principles governing amount can be
more or less thoroughly understood and
then npplied to individual cases. Prin
ciples nro always the same.
Question of Kind.
Pruning Is not only a problem of de
gree, of amount, it is a question of kind
as well. That is to say, the fruitgrower
not only needs to know the principles
underlying the amount of pruning to
do, but of equal importance is tho ques
tion of how that nmount shall be done.
Having determined upon the right
amount of pruning, shall the grower
thin out or head back? If he heads
back, shall he head many branches a
little or shall he head hack a few se
verely? If In' thins out, shall he take
out a few large limbs or ninny smaller
ones? These questions cannot be con
sidered entirely apart from the ques
tion of the number of fruit spurs that
we desire, or their relative strength,
apart from th question of
training. Manifestly the thickness and
density of growth which Is modified
by thinning of one kind or another,
bears an important relation to the
health and vigor of the fruit spurs,
especially those in the lower and cen
tral parts of the ree. In general it
may be stated that heading in tends to
thicken the top, while thinning out, as
the term indicates, thins it. Thinning,
of course, in addition to reducing the
number of actual or potential fruit
purs, lets in sunlight and thus tends
further to keep the remaining ones
healthy and vigorous, heading in, on
the other hand, while reducing the
number of actual and potential fruit
spurs much like thinning out, really
tends to afford less light to the spurs
on the inner and lower limbs, and thus
is apt to redact rather than to increase
their vigor nd longevity. Though head
ing In acts as a stimulus to the devel-1
opment of buds that are left and thus
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in one way forces lateral growth thin
ning also encourages lateral growth
through the removal of branches that
would otherwise check it. In other
words both practices are a stimulus to
fruit spur formation, heading in being
tho greater of the two. Of the two,
thining is probably the greater aid in
increasing the vigor, longevity and reg
ularity of bearing of individual fruit
spurs. Consequently if it is a greator
number of fruit spurs that we need,
thinning and heading in should be com
bined. If we have enough or too many
fruit spurs and wish mainly to increase
their vigor, logevity, and regularity of
bearnig, thinning is tho practice that
we should mainly employ. This is
again the equivalent of saying that
principles, and not rules, should deter
mine the kind of pruning that we
should do. Good judgment is as neces
sary in deciding between heading in
and thinning out as in deciding upon
amount of pruning to do.
Methods of Training.
Though this article does not deal with
training, a word is in place regarding
the relation of pruning to methods of
training. The two Bubjects are quite
independent and this fact should be
emphasized. The one has to do with
form, the other with function. The
grower should not confuse the two.
Ho should realize that there may be
much pruning and very little training;
and conversely much training and very
little pruning. A tree may be well
pruned almost regardless of tho way in
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To the Meeting of
Oregon Development League
-AT
Eugene, Thursday, February 19
VIA
UbUlNltbnAMAI
ROUTED
"The Exposition Line, 1915."
Tickets will be sold from Salem February 18 and 19, and will be good
for return until February 20.
LOW ROUND TRIP FARES
AU Other Point,
Call oa nearest S. V. agent for full particulars, train schedules, etc.
John M. Scott, Cen'l Passenger Agt, Portland, Ore.
a i
which it is trained. Te be more spe
cific ,the open or the close-centered,
tho high or the low headed, tho round
or tho flat-topped, the spreading or tho
pyramidal tree may bo well pruned or
it may be poorly pruned. It is not tho
object of this article to minimize tho
importance of training or to encourage
one type of training over another.
Good training is desirable; it means
much to the fruitgrower. At tho start
he Bhould Btudy carefully tho advan
tages and disadvantages of the different
systems of training and use his best
judgment in deciding upon which one
is the best adapted to his variety or
varieties as thoy grow naturally undor
his conditions. When the system of
training is once settled let it remain
settled, for if the right system has been
selected for a certain set of conditions
there will be no reason for changing
it. The attention of the grower can
then be turned to a study of the few
simple principles underlying all pruning
and to an application of these prin
ciples to the problems that his individ
ual trees present.
KANSAS PEOGEESSIVE3 MEET.
ONITED mESS MU8EU WIUI.l
Topeka, Kan., Feb. 12. With defi
ance to the Old Guard Republicans as
tho keynoto of the meeting, Kansas
Progressives mot here today to draft a
state and congressional platform. Sev
enty Kansas counties were represented
at today's convention.
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Accept no substitute.
If your druggist cannot
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jNiiss si. epeors, gradu
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THE