The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1906-01-01

Young orchard. This care has rel
erence to the trees and also the ground
in which they are planted. Ana De,
fore entering into particulars it is well
onouph to impress upon the reader
tno fact that this care is of great I'M
nortance. Here is where many tali'
Our forefathers planted apple trees
and also other fruit-bearing trees, III
out-of-the-way places, fence corners
probably being the most common anu
in time fruit was produced. Inc iruit
thus produced was not OF a very nieh
order. but in the absence OF any oChei
If was esteemed good. But nttle care
was bestowed upon those trees. III
some way. by the law of heredity, per
hans this slip-shod method OF growing
-, orobard has come down to us ana
- rroo+ioad with more or less deVla-
tion at the present time. Inc writer
No. known more than one case where
an orchard of good varieties ana at
considerable cost, having been planteo'
the ground was seeded down 10 pre-
vent the growth Of weeds. And man
would not have to go far now 10 hhu
small Young orchards on farms Wnere
the pruning knife and saw are tnlhse
unknown The man who eXpecCS W
keen out of the rutS OF ola customs
and make a success in fruit CROWNS
must make a great advance on tnose
old hereditary methods.
First then, comes the care OF the
trees They must not be allowed W
GROW I'D in Just any shape. Here Is
where pruning comes in. AS indicated
before a man must have in his nina
what kind of a shaped tree he is going
to grow before he sets MS Tree, anu
must cut his tree back with that emu
in view. But as the young Tree Deslns
to grow it must be trained. Liinoe
will often start out where we oo no1
want them If there is time TO SPAR
these adventurous sprouts must oe
rubbed off. No knife is needeo lor
this work. Some call this "tnump
pruning." 1t is mostly done by plnch-
ing with the thumb and lore hhser'
This kind of pruning should be prac-
ticed in all stages of an orchard.
As soon as these adventurous
snrouts are pinched off the strength
that it would require to carry Ihelh
through the summer goes lnto tne
other parts of the tree and hastens Ine
growth of the parts that we want 10
remain permanently. If the cares ol
tho ranch are such that this pinch
ing hack cannot be done in the sum
mer then the following winter is the
time when these undesirable sprouts
mus1 he cut off. 1t is not every one
who is competent to do this work. II
is a had practice to send hired man,
who knows nothing about shaping
treee TO do this work. Either the man
who knows what should be done must
attend to this work or he must super
intend the ones who do II. When
older trees are pruned ana tnese ao-
ventitious buds start out along Che
bodv of the tree or in the forKs ai-
most any one can remove these SUCK
erS.
Tn all the pruning of the young tree
we must remember that the chlel
thing aimed at is to give the tree
the nroper shape. And we must not
forget that the prospective shape is
what we should aim at and not the
nresent shape. The writer calls to
mind many serious plumbers that nave
been made by not keeping the pros
nective shape in view. One man did
a good deal of pruning in his neighbor-
hood one spring, and he cut OH the
ends of nearly every limb on the
young trees. When asked why he ala
so, his reply was that it made the
young trees look so much smoother.
So it did at the time, but each limp
so cut off multiplied about four fold
and the next summer bird could
scarcely fly through those trees. Then
came a great job thinning out those
tops that might have been largely
avoided had the primer but possessed
the power of perspective. We must
10 with the minds