Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1869-07-06
Manner of Pruning Apple Trees.

Manner Of Pruning Apple Trees.
The time fer pruning we have al
ready given-in July, and to be exact
about it we would recomend from
the tenth to the twentieth. Last
year we prunsd some trees the Goth
Of July and the wounds have shown
perfect health from that day till now,
the exposed wood being the color of
dried pine board. Some barren trees
we also pruned about that time and
one of the effects waf to cause them
to bear fruit this year. About the
twentieth Of July all the bark may
be stripped from an apple tree and a
new bark will immediately form, but
the growth Of such trees will be
suspended till the following year,
and they will form fruit buds and
bear to excess. Stripping the bark
only from the north side OF trees
insures their bearing, and no other
visible effects follow.
Very often hitherto we have de-
scribed the true method of pruning
trees, but most persons must be told
. thing many times before crediting
and understanding it. Besides some
very clever people are 80 suspicious
Of any new thing and fearful of be-
ing humbugged that they never take
up with anything till certain leading
men in whom they confide adopt and
recommend it. Old ways of doing
things are held to by most men with
stubborn tenacity, and new ways
are stubbornly resisted. Notwith>
standing these several difficulties in
the way, our novel recommendations
as to time for pruning, manner and
kinds of limbs to be detached, with
the objects to be gained by pruning,
are being quite generally adopted
not only in Grant Coanty, but by
leading orchard men throughout the
Northwest.
One difficulty in the way of o gen
eral adoption of our practice has
been failure Of the people to an
deratand it, especially as to the kind
Of limbs having mal-formed cretches,
and (which wO have noted as the
chief cause of what is we'll known
as south-side blight or winter kills
ing. And from the fact that we have
recommended the cutting away Of
such limbs by digging them out, SO to
speak, and some kinds Of trees boar
ing so many as y third such limbs,
eur practice has been assaulted as o
most unmerciful cutting away OF
wood. Whereas, upon an average
eur practice does not require cutting
away even so much wood as the old
professional trimmers who used to
follow the business. Besides, when
q tree is once pruned according to
our method, it rarely ever after re-
quires any pruning, but it very soon
afterwards becomes perfectly healthy
and thereafter hardly water sprout
or useless branch is found upon it,
By our method the disease itself is
removed, with the cause thereof, and
consequently mal-formations, water
sprouts, south.side blights and other
excuses and shifts of nature TO mend
q bad body are thereafter done with
In the first place we have found il
highly important that very young
trees be so pruned as to balance them
which may be done by cutting away
such lower limbs as appear to throw
too much weight of top on one side.
The side having excess OF limbs and
foliage, overdraws sap and virtue
from the roots of that side; and
consequently there is an overgrowth
of roots in that direction. For the
roots of q tree are found to CORES
pond with tops in quantity and ex>
tent. One writer afirms that by
cutting the roots about tree equi.
distant from the body will bring the
tops to q balance, and we supposed
that balancing the top would produce
q balance of the roots. Some exper-
fenced orchardists recommend thin
ding out of the small limbs growing
from the body, but we can hardly
believe the like is ever necessary
When such limbs are healthy, how
Suer dense the top, we believe they
should remain, because tree really
needs all its healthy foliage.
We use pruning knife, small saw
and some chisela for cutting off
limbs. Nal formed limbs should be
either torn away from their roots
or lifted out with q gouge chisel.-
Now why thus and SO is, that in
their apex or partition within you
will always find a rotten and poison-
IS hn~
with . liquid which is constantly be-,
ing absorbed by the vessels of the
tree and emptied into the circulation
causing disease and death. Such
poisonous matter can only be remov.
cd by tearing or gouging out these
false limbs, ono or more such being
found upon nearly every tree in any
orchard. The positive deadly effects
however, of such NAL formation only
follow when late fall growth occurs,
one fall in three or four, during which
the wood of such crotches fails to
mature and the parts are killed by
the next ensuing cold, and but q
slight freeze is sufficient to perfect
the damage. In the Northwest it
il the fall seasons favorable to . very
late growth and consequent imma-
turity of wood, which accounts for
some kinds of trees failing. But the
immaturity of wood from such cause
always effects part of a tree already
diseased--just as cold or other con-
dition begetting impurity in the ami
NAL is sure to settle in part already
affected with disease.
The venom distributed through
the living parts from these mal~form.
ed crctches acts upon the tree pre-
sisely as impurity in the blood acts
upon the animal. Tenderest organs
become diseased, and the tree or an
imal takes to stimulating or over,
eating, thereby making matters worse,
Upon the animal bOils and ether