The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1897-03-25
PRUNING FRUIT TREES.
Prof. Balmer, Of the State Agricultural
College, Gives Valuable Hints.
7EARLIEG FRUIT TREES PREFERRED
Dr. Graves Tells About the Rich
Mines OF the Swauk Distrtct-a
Famous Character Attends the
Railway Mail Clerks Convention

The following instructions for pruning
fruit trees are furnished by Prof. Balmer
of the state agricultural college. The
method of training advocated is the low
head system with close pruning. For
this reason yearling trees are preferred
for planting.
How TO HEAD.--Trees that naturally
have an upright habit of growth, a.
apple, pear and sweet cherry, ought to
be headed not higher than twenty to
twenty-four inches from the ground. And
prunes, aprcots, ETC., ought to be headed
little lower, say twelve or eighteen
inches from the ground. Iearling trees
as usually found in the nurseries of the
state, will range from two to four--or
even seven or eight feet high. At plant
ing time, whether it be spring or fall,
these ought to be headed down to the
proper height.
THE FIRST SEAsoN.-Your orchard con-
tains lot of stubs sticking out of the
ground, to a height not exceeding two
feet. During the first seasons growth
these stubs will develop numerous
branches, almost every bud will start,
and what WAS lately stub will become
little forest OF shoots. Now if you fol-
low some of the authorities you will, as
soon rs the young shoots commence to
develop, proceed to pinch or rub o fl all
the limbs you don't need to form the
frame of the tree. | say, don't pinch or
every leaf to develop to its fullest extent.
Remember the leaves are to the tree
what our lungs and blood are to us its
very life. And every leaf you deprive the
tree of in summer is robbing it of it's
tissue forming organs. Without leaf ac
ton there can be no root action. And
the fullest development in root and
branch can only be secured by reigiously
preserving the foliage.
WHEN TO PKvNE. The best time to
prune is any time after the leaves have
fallen in autumn, and before the buds
begin to develop in spring. Care must
be exercised, however, not to prune at a
time when there is frost in the ground or
! in the air. If the system of the tree be
, frozen, all organlzable matter Is at a
: standstil, and the wound you make will
: not readily heal up, and the result may
! be dead stubs.
THE SECOND Wharf.-The switch that
you planted and headed back last year .
has developed a number of shoots, may
be five or six, but more often fifteen or
twenty. From these select from three to
five of the strongest, best ripened limbs
Cutting out all the rest at the same time
exercising care to have them evenly fill
all the space around and above the tree.
Observe carefully that no two limbs
emerge from the trunk opposite each
other, forming what Is known as a crotch.
A crotch in an old tree is always An evil,
causing weak spot where the tree is
heavy fruit crop. The remedy is in your
own hands when you 20 to prune your
, two year old tree, cut out every limb that
forms a crotch with it's neighbor.
THE THIRD YEAR.-The third pruning
is conducting on the same lines as the
second with this difference. Select the
growth OF the tree; there will usually not
be more than two on each of those left
: last year, observing the same care not to
leave crotches, and shortening in the
growth made in that season but instead
of taking off all OF the inside shoots clean
to the branch, they are left an inch or
two long, and in the course of season
or two all these stubs that you leave will
be converted into fruit spurs. | would
practice pruning il for no other reason
, than to develop every bud on all the
limbs and would treat these buds in such
manner that all would eventually be-
: come fruit spurs.
: How often do We see trees with great
quantities of wood entirely devoid Of
fruit spurs caused by leaving the entire
summers growth and not shortening in
the shoots? A tree in this condition ia
exposed to the same evil influences that
effect trees with tall trunks, and the
greatest care ought to be exercised to en-
courage all weak growth and dormant
buds 10 develop fruiting condition. The
third seasons pruning, then, differs from
the first and second in leaving part Of
all the growth instead of taking it clean
, off as in the case of very young trees. |
object to leaving spurs before the third
, season that by 80 doing we encourage a
fruiting condition in our trees at too early
an age, and this is the very end we are
trying to defeat.
The necessary pruning during the fol.
lowing two or three years does not ma
terislly differ from that described for the
third year. Let the aim be a symetrcal
low, somewhat d-headed tree-the
top ought not to be too full of Woodland
not too thin! Do not expect that every
tree can be pruned so as to assume the
ideal form, for in this you will be dissp-
appointed. No two trees have exactly
the same habit Of growth. Some are
tall and close, others spreading and will