The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1912-01-19

even in that case, 1t is far better 10
leave them on until the crop or ap-
pies is set and assured and then re-
duce their length by sumner prun-
ing work. There are thousands OF
orchards in this intermountain region
in which an original branch has Deen
headed back only to start three more
long water growths which have again
been headed back, each n starting
two or three more, and SO on, until
the top of the tree is a miniature
broom, and a witch's broom at that.
A tree in that shape can only be
cured by long and tedious effort One
third of this energy, however, ex-
pended in starting the tree right will
prevent all this. The rule, then, on
the young developing trees never to
cut off a branch towards the top I'M
less you cut off the entire branch, UNI
til that tree is fruiting heavily, then
the excessive wood growth may be
reduced a small amount at a time
by summer pruning without disturb
ing the balance between the roots and
top. In all pruning of our it
must be remembered that the fruit
is borne on the short spurs next to
the branches and that the lower down
the fruit is borne on the tree the
cheaper and easier it can be handled
at picking time. 1t costs five times
as much to pick a bushel of apples
ten feet from the ground as 1t does
to pick a busnel within reach, and
when you get much above ten feet,
there is little profit in raising ap-
pies.
Irrigation is another of the west
ern problems. In this day w hear
a good deal about raising orchards
without irrigation or with a very
small number of irrigations. 1t is
probably true that many orchards
have been over-irrigated in the past,
bue there will be still greater disap-
pointment in the future if we go to
the extreme and think we are going
to raise fruit without irrigation "a
ter. 1t is easy enough to raise trees
and many orchards have been raised
up to the bearing time with very
small use of water, but when a
crop of fruit has to be ripened right
at the very dryest time of the year
when wood growth has practically
ceased and otherwise the tree would
be using very little moisture, it will
be found that an orchard requires
as much water as any other crop and
if the water is short at that time a
few days may ruin the entire efforts
Nf fhn yTaor Thnrn ic o1c1 onnthor
factor to be kept in mind in the use
of the irrigation water, and that is
that the fruit buds for the next sea-
sons crop must be developed dur
ing the last part of July and August
of the preceding year, just at the
time that the greatest drain is made
on the tree by the growing crop. In
our irrigation experiments on peach
es, We have been able by Withholding
water at this time to absolutely stop
the development of fruit buds.
There is also another factor to be
in irrigating the orchard.
Enthusiastic or%chardists will take
one out, point to a young orchard and
say, Look at that, it has never had
drop of water" and I have looked
many tines and have seen trees fine
and healthy in appearance, but only
half or even one-third the size they
have been had they been irri-
gated, and capable of carrying only
very small load of fruit, even If
they had plenty of moisture to ma
ture 1t, so that even if the orchard
should be irrigated from that time ON
1t would be three OF four years be-
hind an irrigated orchard in it's pro-
power. On the other hand,
in u peach experiments, we have
found that the rows that had the
greatest amount of water and made
largest wood growth. Then when
t came time to mature the fruit the
immense amount of foliage took up
10 much of the water that it was
impossible to develop the fruit to the
size. The happy medium,
therefore,, is a sufficient amount Of
to develop a normal size tree
not an excess that develops water
'prouts and sappy wood, a rather
light application of water in the ear
Ter part of the season so as not to
Emulate too much wood growth, but
n abundance at the time when the
ruit is ripening and the fruit buds
re developing.
l saw an orchard this year in
which everything that l have de-
cribed to you so far had been done
md apparently we'll done-the or
hard was bearing from nine to
welve hundred bushels of apples per
ere and yet the crop was practically
worthless. There is, therefore, one
nore factor to be considered, and
hat is thinning. This orchard was a
aano, Jonathan, Ben Davis orchard
fifteen years old, and each tree had
hree to five thousand little bits of
nder-sized, shrunken apples. The
pples were of little value and the
rees were breaking down and being
uined. If half or two-thirds of
hose apples had been thinned out in
ne beginning of the season, the re-
lainder would have produced a crop
s heavy as the trees could bear Of
etter developed and standard size
pples. There would have been
nough vitality in the tree to devel-
p fruit buds for another year and
verybody would have been happy.
S 1t is, this o%rchardist got an i'm
~ n4 49,