The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-03-06

Pruning is beneficial or hurtful In apDli-
cation, says Farm aud Ranch. To under
stand the principles that should govern US
in the use of the knife or saw requires very
intimate knowledge Of the habits OF growth
Of the trees to which it is proposed 10 apply
Il. There are certain general principles
that must be familiar to us before we can
hope TO achieve satisfactory results. Nor is
tins all We must indi vlduaiize, because no
two trees are precisely alike IN growth-in q
word trained intelligence is a prime factor
in working out satisfactory rlslIts L.
goes without saying, that tbs haIhazsrd
style OF pruning followed Oy a majority Of
farmers, and too many professional lor6i-
cnlturists, is, TO the last degree reprehensi-
ble Our knowledge of the art If pruning
is to great extent empirical, derived from
experience. The effects of various meth
DDS and times OF application has created
fund of practical value. Or course no in
telligent investor will ignore the great car
dinal principles that have TO do with the
life and health Of the tree. The removal Of
a part of any tree is depressing, to a certain
degree # its vital forces. On this account
we should be careful not to be too radical
IN the use of the knife. This is particularly
true in tho removal of large limbs.
1t is here, perhaps, that the farmer
who has family orchard often errs most
eral years, to Urune, he suddenly concludes
on some fine spring morning that his
orchard needs pruning, and with OK and
saw he sallies forth to kill and mako alive.
Devastation follows in his wake and wagon
loads of brush 1re removed; then begins a
struggle for existence and the repair OF
damage done that taxes the vital forces TO
tho utmost, ending often in the final extIuo-
ton OF the trees, from rot that begtas IN the
stumps or limbs cut away.
Two leading principles should govern US
in pruning: First, to secure a shapely, we'll
balanced head; and second, to promote fruit
fitness.
To secure the first Of these desirable re-
suits the tree must he taken IN hand at the
time Of planting and receive proper train
ing during this first, second and third years
OF Its existence. Given q l-year-old tree
with three or five buds, three to five inches
apart, longitudinally, and equally dstrib-
uted around the trunk, the lowest not more
than eighteen inches from the ground, and
we have the initial conditions for the pro-
duction OF a shapely tree. The prevailing
winds of spring and summer from the south
and southwest in prairie regions make it
necessary to set the tree With an angle to
the southwest of. say so degrees. When
he young wood has reached fifteen inches
in length it should be pinched of; new
branches start. All that are not desirable
should be rubbed Off, only allowing sucn to
grow as are suited to our purpose.
Right here we are confronted with the
question: What kind of head, open, spread
ing. compact or ovalg Like an architect
building q house, we must have before our
minds eye the finished product. Here
comes the need of vidualizlug. Some
trees have q natural tendency to produce a
spreading top. Instance, many Of our APP
pies; others, as pears, are naturally oval or
sugar-loaf III shape. Manifestly, the method
OF treatment must vary to accOmmo-
date these very dissimilar conditions.
A tree with strongly marked disposition TO
spread olt could scarcely be made to as
sumo an upright, oval top; vice versa, it
would DO extremely difficult to train a
close, upright grown to become a spreading
top tree Man, in all his work, should be
| the handmade Of nature, helping her to
accomplish the best results without doing
violence to her strongly marked inclina-
tiOns. "a ~. .A-
Having so far generalized upon the prin-
ciples shat should guide us in applying the
art of pruning to the production,,of shapely,
we'll bala lCed trees, we are ready to tnke
up more In detail. the application of these
principles, aud later, that of pruning to in~
crease fruitfuIness. etc.-Fdrm and
Ranch,