132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



One of these large trees so treated is probably more than seveu- 

 ty-five years old and has now an entirely new and vigorous head, 

 grafted with an excellent variety. When I began with it, the fruit 

 was fit only for cider, and it was questionable whether the tree 

 should not be cut down. By grafting it in this manner, I have 

 added surprisingly to its value. Two years ago (the bearing year) 

 I obtained from it ten bushels of apples, last year eight bushels, 

 and this year (the sixth from grafting) twenty-eight and a half 

 bushels of excellent fruit. I consider the tree now worth a hun- 

 dred dollars. The cost of grafting was about five dollars, which 

 was repaid two years ago, the first in which the scion bore fruit." 



As to the better season for pruning, may own opinion is that 

 June is preferable for small limbs or shoots, and October when 

 lar^e limbs from any cause must he removed. Some, I am aware, 

 differ in this, and think a tree more liable to winter kill if pruned 

 late, but I have never seen evidence of this, while it does seem 

 that although when pruning is done in autumn, large wounds do 

 not heal so readily, yet they do not decay so quickly as if done in 

 summer. Whenever any wound is made which will not readily 

 heal over the first season, it should at once be covered with graft- 

 ing wax or some other application which resists moisure. Com- 

 mon paint made of linseed oil and ochre answers well. The neatest 

 application, and the one easiest made, is a solution of gum shellac 

 in alcohol, about tlie thickness of paint, kept in a well corked bot- 

 tle. A brush with its handle passing through the cork furnishes 

 the best mode of applying it. It dries almost at once, and if need 

 be, a second covering may be applied in a few minutes. 



The following remarks are quoted from Downing's Fruits and 

 Fruit Trees of America, a work, which ever since its publication, 

 has been considered high authority : 



" Pruning has the power of increasing the vigor of a tree in two 

 ways. If we assume that a certain amount of nourishment is sup- 

 plied by the roots to all the branches and buds of a tree, by cut- 

 ting off a part of the branches, at the proper season, we direct the 

 whole supply of nourishment to the remaining portion, which will, 

 consequently, grow with greater luxuriance. Again, when a tree 

 becomes stunted or enfeebled in its growth, the thinness of its in- 

 ner bark, with its consequent small sap vessels, (which it must be 

 remembered are the principal channels for the passage of the ascend- 

 ing supply of food,) renders the upward and downward circulation 

 tardy, and the growth is small. By heading back or pruning 



