The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-12-19
Pruning Fruit Trees.

At recent meeting of the Santa Anna
Farmers Institute the following remarks
on pruning deciduous fruit trees were made
by Franklin Cogswell:
l. AS to time. II the pruning ia severe
and the object is TO gain new growth
which will develop fruit buds for crop of
fruit the following year it cannot be done
too soon after the crop is off the tree. This
can only be done with apricots and early
peaches. IL is questionable even with them,
as the fruit Is usually inferior. Best results
are obtained by waiting until the tree is
fully dormant, but before the sap starts in
the spring. Except in the case OF large
limbs. but few horticulturists take the
trouble to protect the cut ends with either
wax or paint. But as l intend only TO get
the matter before you for discussion / will
proceed to the more important point, viz,
the manner OF pruning.
Much has been said and written about
suppressing the scale, the linnets and other
enemies Of fruit trees; but little has been
said about suppressing, In some orchards,
their worst enemy-their owners. If this
can be done, fruit-raising will be much
greater success. II the said owners could
be taken sick during pruning time and their
orchards thereby escape the saw and knife,
there can be no doubt but the trees would
bear enough fruit to pay ali Doctor bills,
and still leave a balance. The object of q
fruit tree is, or ought TO he, to produce
fruit; but many owners keep their orchards
so constantly busy trying to repair dam
ages that they have little or no time 60
bear fruit. 1t has been my observation
that when a tree is severely pruned the re-
naming fruit buds, instead of producing
large, luscious fruit as we might expect, are
most Of them blasted, and the whole atten-
ton of the tree is turned toward growth.
Are trees possessed of intelligence They
seem TO be. The remaining parts seem to
sympathize with the mutilated members,
and refuse to take nourishment away from
them for the mere purpose of producing
fruit. When a person loses one eye the
chief concern of the physician is to save
the other eye, which is often lost through
sympathy.
2. There is another important point The
orchardist / have in mind wonders why a
limb loaded with fruit splits off from the
body, if, by some miscbance, be has al
lowed it to produce fruit. Did he ever split
wood and come to knott If 80, he has had
trouble. That knot reaches clear into the
heart and could never be torn from its
mooriDg, but il the limb which grew from
it was cut off too close TO the tree sucker
sprout comes out to take its place, but is
never so firmly joined to the body as the
original limb, and is never any thing but
sucker limb Perhaps the worst possible
damage is done when the tree is first set out
1t mas become quite the fashion TO destroy
all that the tree has done SO well IN anchor
ing its limbs in Its very heart and leave
nothing but a bare stalk two or three feet
high.
Mutilated and depressed, some yield up
the ghost at once; others make a struggle
for existence, put out sucker limbs, Joined
more or less to the outside of the tree, sure
to split off when any great strain comes
upon them. This usually comes from wind,
il at all as the owners of such trees seldom
give them a chance to load with fruit. l
bought some peach trees of a nurseryman.
In pruning the lower limbs the year before
he had not only cut close to the body but
actually in it. There was a swollen limb
around the cut, but it had not healed over,
neishe- has the bark grown over it as it
should. The best peach orchard in my
neighborhood is one where the entire top
Of the young trees, as they came from the
nursery, was let alone. Trim the lower
limbs fairly close to the body, but not into
it. For two or three years little need be done
in pruning. Cut back sparingly, thin out
an occasional interfering limb, paying due
regard to balance and more attention 60 go
piers which may be gnawing away at the
bottom while you are doing the same at the
top; cultivate thoroughly, and you will
have fruit. have never known any limb
to make two long growths two years in
succession. Young prune trees will put
out slender limbs ten feet long I'M single
season; let them alone. The following sea-
son they will branch out, but not grow up
too far but if cut back of course they will
put up new shoots and start again. and
they and their owners eau keepi it up in that
way for the term of their natural lives, the
trees trying to get ready to bear fruit, and
the owners to stop it-but the latter being
more powerful and having better weapons,
often succeed.