HOW TO PRUNE TREES.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1683, 10 July 1875, Page 6 (Supplement)

HOW TO PRUNE TREES.

{eai Eto-b Laid Down by the on eorticttltxjsai, societt.

TProm thfceseretEvening News, April 20th.] The subft under consideration at the last meetina fthe Deseret Horticuitural Society was th_F pruning and training of fruit trees »> is a question of very great importance tithe fruit-growers of Utah and second oF at this juncture to the all-absorb-ine one! dipposing of the codling moth. We givlthe substance of the comments as presented approved by the society-and sncaestleir careful perusal by all interested. The rui and indiscriminate slaughter of fruit tr| which has been and continues to be mad and frequently, too, by parties claimin_)i'Ofeßßioiial skiU in the art of pr_"' me aifthe painful lack of discretion displayed ji this" subject by many, seems to call for sorf special effort to place before the publiclefimte information relative to the true nfle and design of pruning. A vague convicfn that the branches of fruit trees need a binning out to keep an open head, by removgthe weak and conflicting branches, constit.testhe sum of the information with which peat persons commence. THE IEiiLY ATTACK UPON THE ORCHARD. The'cariful study of tbe habits and peculiarities of each species of tree ; the thought of wha\, ©eh individual tree has done in the past, or i expected to do in the future; whether i ia prematurely forming fruit-buds, or runnii to wood too luxuriantly; the special ca '■ for a weak but important shoot that is ifeivhag too little nourishment, because a g*rmand above it is monopolising all the sap an sunlight; the calculation for future years, thi the foundation now laid shall be the basispf a sufficient number of branches filling a4 lntag6ousl J every part of the tree, while nn) shall crowd or interfere with its neighbotf", and a hundred other considerations h?e been generally overlooked, if, indeed ley have ever entered into contemplatijn. liToung trees, as a rule, are left to themselfs until half grown, when the top is found . be a thicket of brush. Then it; is sagely jncluded that the tree needs pruning, and theionslaugbt commences. The axe and the, sawfire brought into requisition, and in one nhop hour a pretty, useful tree is slain, strippffiW one-third of its top. A young tree once o| victim of such mutilation rarely if ever rdovers from its effects. In this sen.c a tree sfcald never need pruning. The difflc_]ty ffould be avoided rather than remedied, so that instead of felling great branches the fingefittid thumb or at most the pruningr knife,! Vill be suffitient to direct the growth H^lm-temsßwr! ■ ■ '■•■■ in