Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1914-02-12

only once in four or five or six or eight
or eve nten years. The average length
Of life Of the fruit spur in some trees
may be three or four years, in others
thirty or forty years. These are ex-
tremes, of course, but they represent
facts regarding the Fruit manufacturing
machinery in our orchards. Surely all
Of these conditions cannot be equally
satisfactory. There must be some of
these extremes that are distinctly un.
desirable. Possibly no extreme is de-
sirable. What are the correct answers
to the questions that have been asked ?
If the fruit-spur system Of the tree is
its mechanism for fruit production
then is it reasonable that we should
prune (1) to obtain as large a number
Of fruit spurs as possible, for within
certain limits to be mentioned later,
the larger the number of fruit manufac
turing machines the larger will be their
total output. And is it not also reason
able that we should prune (2) to keep
the fruit spurs that we once secure in
as thrifty, vigorous and healthy condi-
tion as possible, for the better condi-
tion machine is in the better is the
product that it will turn out.
Pruning Practices That Encourage.
Now let us ask what are the pruning
practices that stimulate and encourage
the formation of the largest possible
number of fruit spurs and what are the
pruning methods and practices that
either directly or indirectly limit fruit
spur formation. First, it may be men
toned that not few fruitgrowers de-
liberately remove fruit spurs from the
scaffold limbs of their trees. Of course
many orchardists would never permit
such pruning in their orchards, but it
is far from uncommon. The writer
ell remembers visiting one orchard of
over 10000 large bearing trees where
the new manager was having this done
The idea evidently was that the trees
"look better" when they have perfect
ly smooth limbs, their surface ungrok-
en- and unmarried by irregular Jagged
spurs Little thought was given to the
fact that immediate and future yields
were being reduced, that indeed the
part of the tree best able to bear
heavily was probably being rendered
permanently barren. How many people
pruning trees between the ages Of two
and five years prune with their future
bearing habit and bearing surfaces in
mindl Probably very few. Too many
are inclined to think that at that age
they are pruning simply to secure Wig
orous wood growth and proper shape.
At that stage Of tree growth these ques-
tions should be dominant, but that does
not mean that future bearing habit
should be entirely lost sight of. Espe.
cially is this true when pruning trees
four, five and six years old, If the
branches Of young trees are pruned too
heavily practically all the buds left are
forced into growth. This necessitates
severe thinning and severe heading
back the following year; and these two
processes kept up year after year for
three or four seasons mean that but
very few buds that can develop into
fruit spurs will be left in the lower
and central part of the tree. 1t is prob
ably good practice to prune heavily
trees that have been set one, two, three,
four and occasionally five years. By
this heavy pruning wood growth is
greatly stimulated and large, vigorous
tree with good strong framework can
be quickly grown. But when the time
comes for the tree to begin to bear the
kind Of pruning employed should be en-
tirely changed, for an entirely differ
ent type Of growth is wanted, The ener-
gies Of the tree are to be turned into
another direction or at least they are
TO be divided and part Of them expend-
ed for fruit spur and fruit production,
In terms Of pruning practice this OBJ
jcct is accomplished mainly by compar.
atively light pruning for at least a
couple Of years, Yet many orchards
that are or have recently reached bear.
ing age show that the one directing
their pruning has figured (if,ipdeed, he
has thought about this particular ques-
tion at all that the same type Of prun-
ing that has been giving him excellent
vegetative growth win in some way
also give him fruit spurs, though other
conditions have in no way materially
changed, In hardly any other way can
the frequent heavy pruning Of trees be-
tween four and eight or ten years of
age be explained, II sometimes seems
as though we have a kind Of blind faith
that our trees will somehow come into
bearing without much effort ON our
part aud in spite of almost anything
we can do to prevent it, Consequently
we give little thought to pruning as
Il really influences bearing habit.
Limits FrJit.Bearing,
What has just been said regarding