MR. CORSAN: They sent out sprouts that far. [Indicating.] The trees were all right.
MR. STOKE: I think you are both wrong. I think you will take the tree and plant it without pruning and then it starts and then in the summer after it is in full leaf pinch off the leader in the lower branches. That will retain the value of those lower leaves. By doing that and suppressing the lower you will get better results than either of the other ways. Nature will remove and make unfruitful the lower ones. You can help nature in forcing the upper growth and removing the lower.
DR. McKAY: That is one way of doing it. A lot of people want to get ahead of nature. If you wait for those lower limbs to die, the tree will have to be pretty large. Lots of people want to get under their trees before that. You sometimes want to get there after three or four years. I think it would take ten years for the shade to do it.
MR. STOKE: I didn't mean to let the shade do it. We after three or four years can remove the limbs ourselves with less shock and much better results. That will work on any tree.
DR. McKAY: I don't see how you can remove.
MEMBER: You force stronger leaders at the top and hasten the growth of the top.
MEMBER. You will get a delay of fruiting.
MEMBER: I think you make up for it.
DR. CRANE: That may be true. We have seen very conclusively that when you prune even a little you are going to destroy fruiting.
MR. STOKE: You will have a larger tree in five years by my method than by yours.