The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1912-02-16
The Care Of the Orchard
orssoa -sbe,t Lin. Dsmoast-asioo 7,as, L,e,a..
(Continued from last weekl


spraying and another two or three
cents bushel spent on the care OF
the tree will yield big returns. One
OF the chief reasons why we are able
20 raise high priced apples is because
OF our long days of summer sunshine
ana yet II we allow the wood growth
OF our trees to become SO thick AZ tn
shade a crop Of apples, we might az
wen 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. il
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
Ject 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 thi~1gs, after the
fourth or fifth year, the tops of the
branches should not be cut back un-
less there is to be heavy crop of ap-
pies the next season, and even in
that case, it is far better to leave
them until the crop of apples is set
nd
length by sumner 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
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, expended in starting
the tree right will prevent all this.
The rule, then, on the young develop
ing tree Is never to cut off branch
towards the top unless you cut of
the entire branch, until that tree is
fruiting heavily, then the excessive
wood growth may be reduced 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
10 fr-.iif fo hcr
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
irrigation or with 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 If 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, it will be round that an or
chard requires as much water as any
other crop, and if the water is short !
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
fruit buds.
There is also another factor to be
considered in irrigating the orchard.
Enthusiastic orchardists will take one
out, point to young orchard and say,
Look at that, it has never had drop
of water" and / have looked many
times and have seen trees fine and
healthy in appearance, but only half
or even one-third the size they would
have been had they been irrigated,
and capable of carrying only very
small load of fruit, even if they had
plenty of moisture to mature it, so
that even if the orchard should be ir-
rigated from that time on it would be
three or four years behind an irrigat-
ed orchard in its producing power.
On the other hand, in our peach ex-
periments, we have found that the
Quite True.