Arizona republican., 1891-01-31
TRAINING AND PRUNING.
The Relative Merits of High and Low
 Headed Fruit Trees.

Headed Fruit Trees.
 The climate of this whole coast, with the exception, perhaps, of Western Ore gon and Washington, is peculiar in having bright, dry, and in some wide areas, hot, dry summers. Therefore, if the trunks and branches of fruit trees are exposed to the direct rays of the sun at any season of the year, the bark and young layer of sap-wOod, on most species of fruit trees, will be killed by the heat of the sun, and the result will be disease or b0rers, or both, and the ruin of the trees.
 Trees are most liable to injury from this cause in dry, hot autumns, after sap movement has ceased, at winch time the new layers of bark and wood are delicate, and the direct rays of the sun strike on the trunk. This is the one great reason why trees with high heads are unsafe nearly everywhere on this continent. That the tree with low head, even a very low one, branChed to the ground, is the best possible tree in every particular, if pruned and trained aright, have proved by carefully con duCted experiments on thousands of trees during forty years.
 l shall not in this paper attempt to glve all the reasons why low-headed trees are in every way better for fruit. health, long life, ease in cultivation and all points of management, and will only state two reasons here that are the most prominent.
 First, nature never grows tree stand ing singly, and not crowded by others as our orchard trees are all grown, in any other way than branched from the very ground There are no exceptions to this rule of nature. All the wild trees with naked trunks of any length have had their lower branches smOthered off by other growths or destroyed by animals.
 Second, it is taken for granted that we plant fruit trees from which to get the greatest possible amount of good fruit and the money that fruit will bring. In the low-headed tree there is no loss of fruiting space. In such tree fruiting begins with in foot or two of the ground and advances upward; while the tree with a high head, say six feet of naked trunk, fruiting can only begin at about seven feet from the ground and advances up- ward in the same way, and with the re- suit that the owner of the tree has for ever lost the six feet of space below, which experiment will prove is the very best fruiting space of the tree, yielding the most and best fruit in every way.
 The one great objection urged against trees with low heads Is that one cannot blow near or under them and for that reason they are cultivated with difficulty. The reverse is true If the tree is trained exactly on the plan given below there will never be time when the blow can not be run as close to the tree as it should go. The plOughshare should never ap- proach nearer than two feet of an estab- lished trees base, and even at that dis tance should be very shallow.
 Plant good, strong trees one year from bud or two years from root graft. Plant them little deeper than they stood in the nursery, packing fine soil firmly among and over their roots. Lean the trees strongly in the direction of the sun at 2p. Tn. When all are planted cut every one of them square off one foot above the ground. Let them grow at will, cultivating thoroughly until aut- umn. The next winter the little trees will have made from six to ten short ...,. ft,t | l,n shoots back to inches, leaving the four upper ones the full length, except they have made growth of over 16 inches. If they have, prune back to l6 inches. Treat any ether number of shoots in the same way. Let the trees grow at will the next summer. When winter comes the lower branchs have grown one or more shoots each on those cut back; these are again cut back to three inches. The upper branches, if they had been pruned back the previous winter, would have made one or more strong shoots, starting from near where cut. If there are more than two cut the Overplus. If two, cut one back to 20 inches, the other to 6, and all others the same. Let the trees grow at will again the next sum- mer, and the next winter prune as before, except cutting back the two upward shoots on the mann branches to l6 and 6 inches. This winter sub-branches will be found on the main branches, and sub branches growing on the inside of the head. These should all be cut back to to s inches in length, but never cut out clean. These should also have been cut back the winter before. The next win ter prune the same, except pruning back short any branches showing tendency to grow out horizontally. The same practice should be repeated during the whole life of the trees.
 This system applies nicely to all fruit trees with the possible exception of the peach end cherry. It is best applied to the peach if one main upward growing stem is kept, pruning back all others short. The peach requires extreme thin. ming out of small shoots on the outside and the upward part of the tree clean that is, the entire removal and pruning back to spurs all twigs on the inside oi the head. The pear IS also best pruned in this way.
 The result of this system is a tree shaped like two cones base to base, thus ( The one great point in this system ot pruning and training is the thorough yearly thinning out, clean out, of tho twigs on the outer and upward surfac, AL H. 4