ts in
the North, which are now being made by a number of growers.

It will be noted also in table 1 that the trunk diameters of the
unpruned trees were about twice as great as were those of trees trained
to two-and four-foot heads; and furthermore, the yield of nuts was more
than four times as great. This means that cutting off the limbs that
formed below the 2-foot level checked growth so that the bearing surface
of the tops was greatly reduced as compared with that of unpruned trees.
Also, growth of the tops of these trees was etiolated and spindly, and
the shoots produced few or no catkins as compared with the abundant
catkins produced by the unpruned trees. Several of the trees with
four-foot heads became so top-heavy that staking was necessary, and
nearly all the pruned trees leaned to some extent. At the end of the
third year in the orchard, the unpruned trees were much taller than
trees headed at two and four feet, and the spread of branches was also
much greater. Preliminary results from this experiment indicate that
early pruning of young Chinese chestnut trees causes severe dwarfing and
consequent delay in the formation of catkins and the bearing of nuts.
All pruning operations should, therefore, be delayed until the trees
reach bearing age, and from that time on low limbs may be removed
gradually from year to year until the trees are trained to the proper
height.

Literature Cited

(1) Crane, H. L.
The effect of height of head on young apple tree growth and yield
West Virginia Agr. Exp. Sta. Bul. 214. 1928

(2) Tufts, Warren P.
Pruning young deciduous fruit trees
California Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 313: 111-153. 1919

Discussion

MR. McDANIEL: What age and height were these trees when planted?

DR. McKAY: These trees were grafted on two year old stock and allowed to
grow a year. They were three years old. They have grown in the orchard
three years, so they are now six years old and about five feet high.

They were grafted about a foot from the ground and they grew three feet
or so. They were a good size grafted tree.

MEMBER: May I ask the time of the year when you pruned?

DR. McKAY: In the dormant season.

MR. SHERMAN: I have been pruning some Persian walnuts. Just as the side
branch starts I rub that bud off and I can't see that I am dwarfing it
any.

MEMBER: Maybe you aren't pruning enough to do any dwarfing. We have
removed whole limbs.

MEMBER: I have taken it off and allo