American Pomology. Apples

by J. A. Warder

In the dense primeval forest we see nature's pruning exhibited upon a grand and perfect scale; tall, straight, and noble trunks rise majestically on every hand; not a twig nor limb breaks the symmetry of the gradually tapering shafts, that are clothed in bark which does not indicate that they had ever been furnished with branches; and yet they have borne branches from their base to their summit, and nature has so neatly removed them that we cannot detect the marks of her pruning-saw. How this has been effected, may be seen in any dense thicket of young forest growth. It is simply a smothering of the lower branches by those next above them, which has destroyed their vitality, and their decay has soon followed; while a new growth of branches at a higher point, in turn, performs the same office of destruction upon those next below them. As there is no outlet for the wood-growth but in an upward direction, upwards they must needs go, and as there is no light nor air for lateral branches under such a canopy of shade, death and decay ensue, and down they perforce must come.

If it be asked why we prune at all, it may be answered in general terms that in the orchard, our objects in performing this operation, are two-fold.

1st—We prune for shape and comeliness, and for the removal of dead and dying branches, in aid of nature, but working in sympathy with her.

2d—We prune for the sake of inducing fruitfulness.

Let us consider some of the principles that are to guide us in these operations.

The first object, that of producing the desired shape of the future tree, is chiefly done upon the young subject, even in the nursery-row. The judicious pruner, being well aware of the upward tendency of young growth, and that this is increased by the crowded condition of the trees in the nursery square, seeks to overcome the evil by proper pruning. If the growth be altogether upward, with no side branches the first season, the stem will be slender, often so much so as to bend over with its own weight. The wise nurseryman carefully avoids disturbing the leaves or lateral branches, well knowing their importance in forming the woody trunk. At the proper season he trims his trees down, instead of trimming them up—this he does by heading them back to the hight at which he desires them to form their branches—at the same time, he shortens in the laterals; his object in both instances being to check the upward tendency of growth by removing the strong terminal buds, which would naturally have formed the new shoots the coming season. The result of this treatment is to call into action several buds at the upper part of the stock. These are to form the arms of the tree, and hence a very important part of the pruning and training of the plant is thus performed at once by this simple operation of heading-back the young nursery tree. But further attention is needed, as these arms develop themselves during the next season of growth; they should not be too numerous, nor too much crowded together; they should not be too nearly matched in strength, and one should be kept as a leader, stronger than the rest. Never allow two shoots to remain contending for the mastery; one of them should be subordinated by cutting, breaking, or twisting, as soon as it is observed; for how beautifully developed, a tree grown in this way, may appear when well balanced, there is always danger of its splitting down when heavily laden with fruit. This very common error of our orchards used to be quaintly illustrated by a dear old friend on the prairies of Illinois, who cited the advice of a Scotch jockey to whom he had applied for counsel in the purchase of a piece of horse-flesh. "Ne'er buy a horse whose twa fore-legs cum oot frae ae hole," said he, and Mr. W. Stewart applied the same principle to his young fruit trees, by never allowing them to have two equal leaders, branching from one point. It is also important to have the lateral branches regularly distributed on different sides.

The precise point or elevation point at which this heading-back should be done, will depend very much upon the object of the cultivator, and whether he desires to produce a high or a low head, a standard, half standard, or a dwarf, or conical tree—such as are often called pyramids. He will study the wants and fancies of his customers in this matter, but we of the West, have learned the importance for us, at least, of trimming our trees down, and not trimming them up, as is often done by those who anticipate plowing and planting crops under the shade of their orchards. The proper point for forming the branches to make the head, will very much depend, however, upon the habit of the variety; whether it be drooping, spreading, or upright. The former will require the branches to be started at a higher point. The proper season for performing this kind of pruning is in the early spring, or after the severe frosts of winter have passed; and with some kinds of orchard trees, it may be done at the time of transplanting them, when they need a severe pruning.

The second object of pruning being done with a view to the production of fruitfulness in the tree, is to be practised chiefly in the summer. At the same time, or during the growing season, much may be done to advantage, both in thinning-out and shortening-in such parts of the tree, as may need these plans of treatment. Various methods are pursued to produce fruitfulness, all of them depending upon the fact that this condition arises from the natural habit of a tree to make its wood-growth freely for a series of years. After it has built up a complicated structure of limbs and branches, with some consequent obstruction to the flow of sap, depending upon the hardening of the woody tissues, and the tortuous course of its circulation, it then appears to have reached its maturity, or its fruit-bearing condition. It then ceases to make such free wood-growth, and prepares a set of buds, which develop flowers and fruit.

Now this period of growth and unfruitfulness may continue for a longer or shorter time in different varieties of fruits; and the shortening of this, is the great object of summer pruning, and of other methods of producing fruitfulness that may be classed under this second head of the objects of pruning.

To appreciate their importance and the mode in which the effect is produced, we must ever bear in mind the two great acts of vegetable life, that of wood-growth or growth by extension, and the wonderful morphological change of this growth into flowers and fruit. These are, in some sense, antagonistic. The first is essential to the production of timber, to the building up of the tree, and should be encouraged to do its work undisturbed, up to a certain point, that we may have a substantial frame-work by which our fruits can be supported. The latter, however, is the ultimate desideratum with fruit-growers, and in our impatience to reap a quick reward, we often resort to measures that tend to curtail the usefulness, size, and beauty, as well as the permanence of our trees. This is an illustration of the axiom, that whatever threatens the vitality of a plant, tends to make it fruitful; it calls into activity the instinctive effort to perpetuate the species by the production of seed, that may be separated from the parent, and establish a separate and independent existence, to take the place of that, the life of which is threatened.