The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1912-03-15

Pruning Is Just as essential al
spraying and another two or three
cents a bushel spent on the care Of
the tree will yield big returns. One
OF the chief reasons why we are able
to raise high priced apples is because
OF our long days OF summer sunshine
and yet II we allow the wood growth
OF our trees to become so thick as to
shade crop of apples, we might as
well plant our trees in Ohio and be
done with 1t. The open-headed tree
with plenty OF sunlight, plenty OF air
circulation carrying a small enough
crop OF apples so that the tree can
produce them to the standard size, Is
the efficient tree. There are almost
as many methods Of pruning as there
are men to prune, and yet they all
practically agree in regard to the OBJ
! 1ect sought. The major portion of
the experienced western orchardists,
however, agree that after the tree has
been grown and the head properly
formed and spread out, as has been
described to you by Secretary Nc
Pherson, one should be careful with
the pruning knife in the winter time
until the tree is in full bearing. And,
above all other thugs, after the
fourth or fifth year, the tops of the
branches should not be cut back I'M
less there Is to be heavy crop OF ap-
pies the next season, and even in
that case, 1t is far better to leave
hn Of a..
and assured and then reduce their
length by summer pruning work
There are thousands Of orchards in
this intermountain region in which an
original branch has been headed back
only to start three more long water
growths which have again been head
ed back, each one starting two or
three more and so on, until the top
of the tree is miniature broom, and
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, expended in starting
the tree right will prevent all this.
The rule, then, on the young develop
ing tree is never to cut off a branch
towards the top unless you cut off
the entire branch, until that tree is
fruiting heavily, then the excessive
wood growth may be reduced a small
amount at time by summer pruning
without disturbing the balance be-
tween the roots and top. In all prun-
ing of course 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 bushel within reach.
and when you get much above ten
feet. there is little profit in raising
apples.
Irrigation is another OF the western
problems. In this day we hear a good
deal about raising orchards without
irrigation or with a very small num-
Der OF irrigations. 1t is probably true
that many orchards have been over
irrigated In the past, but there will
be still greater disappointment in the
future II we go to the extreme and
think we are going to raise fruit with
out irrigation water. 1t is easy
enough to raise trees, and many or
chards 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. IL will be round that an or
chard requires as much water as any
other crop, and if the water is short D
at that time few days may ruin the
entire efforts of the year There is
also another factor to be kept in
mind in the use of the irrigation
water. and that is that the fruit buds
for the next seasons crop must be
developed during 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 grow
ing crop. In our irrigation expert
ments on peaches. we have been able
by Withholding water at this time to
absolutely stop the development of
'ruit buds.
There is also another factor to be =,
considered in irrigating the orchard
orchardists will take one
'ut, point TO a young orchard and say, ,
Look at that, it has never had drop
II water and | have looked many ,
lines and have seen trees fine and ,
healthy in appearance, but only half :
'r even one-third the size they would +
lave been had they been irrigated, 8
md capable of carrying only a very {
small load of fruit, even If they had !
plenty of moisture to mature it. so I
hat even if the orchard should be ir- |
'lgated from that time on it would be G