SUMMER PRUNING.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2172, 10 February 1881, Page 3

SUMMER PRUNING.

The principal reason for pruning fruit trees during the summer growth is the removal of new superfluous branches. But other results may be obtained by a skilful performance of the practice. The growth of a tree may be equalised, for if one shoot is stronger than its neighbours on the same branch, and the stronger is stopped or shortoned during the ■eason of growth, its progress is arrested, and, being unable to consume so muoh sap, the overplus goes to the weaker shoot, by which it profits to such an extent that its strength rapidly increases, and by the time its hitherto more vigorous neighbour has made a fresh ■tart, the two are upon equal terms, or even, in a vigorous tree, that which was at first the weakest may beoome the stronger of the two. Thus a balance is maintained between all parts of the tree, by a process easy of accomplishment, and more certain than if left till the wood had become fully matured, when the outting baok of the stronger shoot results in the production of a large number of fresh ■hoots whioh appropriate a still larger share of sap, and reduce the strength of the weaker shoot in proportion ; whereas had the pruning been effected before the leading shoot reached its full strength, the equality then oaused would have remained, and at the winter pruning the two would start on equal terms. Summer pruning also promotes fertility, for whatever gives a check to the growth of wood tends to the formation of fruit-buds. This fact may be taken advantage of to bring a too vigorous tree into a state of fruitfulnes, aa in the case of the Northern Spy apple, which keeps on growing for many years before Teaching maturity and commencing to bear fruit, the period being lengthened by the ordinary annual process of winter pruning, whioh tends to the increase of wood, and is antagonistic to fertility. If a tree of ouch a nature is left altogether unpruned it will the sooner reaoh maturity, but then it will probably be unequal in its development, some branches being strong and vigorous, others weak and useless; the former probably having grown into long thin wands, too weak to bear the weight of a orop of fruit when the tree does attain the bearing stage. Bootpruning is another plan for producing early maturity, but it is rarely that it requires to be resorted to in this climate, and is hardly ever necessary or advisable, seeing that the same result can be obtained by the simple operation of summer pruning. The proper time at which to prune growing shoots can hardly be defined with exactitude, experience and acquaintance with the nature of the variety, operated upon being the surest guides. Shoots that are altogether superfluous should be obliterated as soon as, or even before the buds burst, thia process of disbudding being more necessary in the peach than almost any other kind of fruit tree. But where fruitbearing spurs are required, as in the case of apple and pear, the fruit of whioh is borne on apuru, then the young shoots must be allowed to attain a certain length, and a slight degree of firmness before being stopped ; the length to whioh they should be allowed to extend depending principally on the vigor of the tree, for the stoppage by pinching off the point causes a certain number of the uppermost buds to break, while the lowest, that do not burst, are caused to swell more or less through the increase of sap that is foroed into them, and thus, instead of remaining as wood buds, may be changed into fruit buds; so that, as is evident, a considerable amount of judgment is requisite for even so apparently simple a matter as pinching the point off a young shoot, for if done too early the whole of the buds may burst, while otherwise the spur may remain of ungainly length, beoause the highest of the buds that have not burst are those that ■wall the most, and therefore the most likely to be fruitful, so cutting them off in order to reduce the spur to a convenient length would be a waste of material, aa woll as a frustration of the object in view. There is yet another time for pruning an over-vigorous tree in order to bring it into a state of fertility, and may be termed autumn pruning; the period of its performance is shortly before growth ceases in the autumn. If one or two inches of the immature points of the whole of the shoots are cut off while suffioient sap remains, a portion of the remaining buds will be swelled to such an extent that a number of -them may be transformed from leaf buds into fruit buds, and a state of fertility bo brought about $ but should the whole of the buds fail to undergo the change to fruit the first year, by repeating the process the succeeding autumn the desired effect will be almost certainly produced. Thus by a well-directed system of summer pruning the energies of a tree are conferred, fertility is promoted, health, and a balance between wood growth and fruit growth maintained. Time may be also saved, for it will generally be found that less time is consumed when summer-pruning is practised than when the whole mass of tflwot* if loft to be oat off in winter.