The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1874-02-12

The time will soon come for active
work and all that can be done in ad-
vance of the busy season is q double
gain. Of these advance affairs, pruning
and trimming up the fruits and fruit
bushes is one which can well be done at
any time now whenever there is an OPP
portunity. Raspberries and blackberries
have not generally much done to them,
except the old bearing branches Of last
year cut away. But it is an additional
and great advantage to cut away many of
the weaker canes, and to cut back one or
two feet of the ones which are left to bear.
Currants and gooseberries are also ben
Gifted by little use of the pruning knife.
In some parts Of the country there is .
small borer eats into the currant stems,
feeding ON the pith. In these cases the
growth is weak, and the fruit produced
correspondingly poor. A cut across .
few shoots will soon determine whether
that seem to have this enemy should be
cut away and burned. The currant does
not bear we'll unless there is q continu-
Gus succession of strong, healthy-growing
shoots, SO that all weak ones should be
cut out, leaving only the strongest; and
where these are not particularly strong,
some of them may be shortened by one
half. The gooseberry does not need
much pruning. Thinning out some of
the weaker ones is all that Is necessary.
The grape requires more judgment
than some other fruits, but it is SO liable
to produce strong branches, which bear
fruit well only on the tops of the vines;
and the naked space, especially when the
vine is growing against q wall, is so much
lost. The object always striven for by q
good grape-grower is to have bearing
branches always as close to the ground as
possible. To do this he has to continu-
ally check the strong tendency of any
shoots which may appear at the top of
the vine, and encourage any that may be
lower down, which are generally the
weaker ones. How to do this cannot be
well taught in q newspaper article. 1t is
one of those things which comes only
from continual observation as to how
grape vines grow. At this time we may
say that we need the very strongest canes
to be left on, if we wish a fine crop of
creditable grapes, and may thin out the
weaker canes, which will only bear small,
mean fruit; but if all the strong ones are
on the top of the vine, high up out of
reach, and the weaker ones are low down,
it will often be good policy to let the
weak ones stay, and cut off the strong top
ones, in order to encourage this low-down
growth.
Pear trees are often trimmed too much.
Little more is needed than to thin out
here and there branches which crowd
each other. Dwarf pears. however, re-
quire more pruning, as a rule, than
standard pears.
Apples are the same as pears. In old
orchard trees there is often large num-
Der of young branches come out in the
heart of the tree; that is, in among the
heads. These should always be cut out,
as they check the proper supply of food
to the bearing branches. Sometimes the
old bearing branches will be almost
worn out. This can be known by the
shoots of last year being feeble, and of
but few inches in length. In these
cases, instead of cutting away the strong
shoots in the interior, it may do better to
put new head ON the tree. To do this,
cut away the old bearing branches, and
and leave some of the young sprouts to
make another set. This, of course, sacri-
fees a crop for two or three years; but
it makes nice young orchard in time
Forney's Weekly Press.