And isn’t efficiency is in the eye of the orchardist? Is efficiency measured by speed of harvesting because of labor costs? Some pruning styles promote this as an advantage. Is efficiency measured by bushels of apples per unit area? As in most endeavors we come across the ‘time vs. money’ decisions and with each orchardist it is different. For my little orchard, I prune such that I can protect the fruit from raiders that Alan mentioned, that is, align trees and size to fit inside chicken wire and under bird netting and at the same time being mindful of how to catch the most sun. It turns out looking more like a fat espalier. 