The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1907-02-15

e'NS'' anu "uSu uC WdS uOue every
main limb was slick and clean. I
did not allow him TO touch another
tree. The small inside branc .es
should be cut back, Tut the rest
left, SO a, t. make the fruit low
down amt near the trunk, inst. ad
OF at The remte end of the limbs
By the fourth year the tree should
be peoperly shaped. and if the
work has b. en- we'll done the pre-
vious year, it Will be full of little
branches. all thickly studded with
fruit buds, with certainty, unless a
late frost should occur, of at least a
thousand more than the tree can
mature. Some cutt ng will still
have to be done to keep the tree in
shape, but the main object now is
to get rid of the superfnous fruit
buds. This means great amount
of clipping for each tree. Cut all
the little limbs back If we knew
there would be no late frosts we
know exactly what to do. We
wonld cut each limb back to about
buds, but to make sure notwith-
standing frost, leave six or eight
; buds, more perhaps on the stronger
branches, aud less on the weak ones.
When ,our work is done the tree
will look pretty stubby, but when
the.fruit ripens it will all be large,
and borne close up to the main
limbs, with no danger of breaking
the tree. Even such severe prun-
ing, unless the late frost does it Tor
you, you will have a lot of thinning
to do. Remember again that you
do not want quantity but quality.
Thirty-eight rightly grown Elber-
tas will fill a box. Do MT try to
get more than four hundred and
eighty of them from a four year old
tree. 1t will have about 1000
small one S, but if YOU let it bear.
that Lumber YOU wi ruin you.
tree and your reputation as a good
fruit grower.
l ought to remind you that each
has an individuality of its own and
must be treated accordingly. You
. will have to study each tree and
p,ute each according to its own
needs
l ouk ht also, pei laps, say WORD
about summe pruning The peach
Can be safely prunee at almo any
time exec t whet the woods frozen.
BY going over the rec N June os
July aud cutting back the more
vigo'ous yonng growth, that is the
y u Z wood is t. have the
! fruit the next car, YOU can save
the tree forming lot of fruit buds
which y,.u would cut ou later any
way, and you strengthen The buds
that arc left.
So far have assumed that we
know that the tree is going TO b. ar
fruit the season following the prur
ing. But suppose we know il isn't
going to BEAR. Suppose when we
examine the fruit buds we find that
they have all been k lled. This will
happen sometime, probably, and
when it does it will give us chance
to reshape the tree, by cutting it
way back. The larger part of the
wood formed the previous year
may be cut out and in its place
will come the new wood for the
next years fruit.
The manner of pruning grapes
depends upon the method of grow
ing them, whether upon trellis,
post or tree form. The American
varieties, that is Concord, Niagara.
Worden, Monco Early, e;c. Il think
should be grown upon a trellis of
two or three wires, strung upon
posts about 80 feet apart. 1 have
three wires and have one main cane
for each wile, trying to trim the
branches from each cane in each
direction along the wire. They
need to be cnt back each year al
most to the limit. Indeed the
grape is prune d more severely than
any other fruit. 1t is aim st iu