222 TRANSACTION'S OF THE ILLINOIS 



to the large branches, the most of which were either killed or so wounded 

 that but few of them have since escaped destruction by borers. 



Had this orchard been thoroughly root-pruned at the time the top- 

 pruning was done, then there would have been no excessive or prolonged 

 top-growtli, and the vitiated sap would have been confined to the small 

 branches, where it would have dried up, instead of having been carried 

 do\N-n\\-ards into the older parts of the trees; or had the trees, after they 

 were pruned, luade excessive bloom, followed by a large set of fruit, 

 tlien the draft upon the trees to sustain these would have lessened to a 

 certain extent the vigor of the trees, and an earlier exemption from blight 

 and less disastrous results would have followed. 



KOOT-PKUNING TREES IN THE SUM.MEH. 



When sjDeaking of root-pruning trees, we have often atlirmed that, ' 

 theoretically, the summer was the best time to do the work, especially so, 

 when the operation was resorted to to induce a fruitful condition; but 

 practically, that some time between late fall and early spring would be 

 best. This, of course, was said with respect to trees planted in clayey 

 soils, which in the summer months become so compact and hard at a 

 little depth, that the labor of opening a trench deep enough .to reach the 

 roots would be attended with too great cost, as well as fatigue to the 

 operator. In the winter the sub-soil becomes saturated and soft, and so 

 long as it remains in this condition, several times as many trees could be 

 operated on in a given time, as in hard soils. These are the princiiDal 

 reasons why we have so often directed to shorten the roots of trees in 

 winter. 



But we are aware that thefe are parts of the country where the sub- 

 soil is sandy, and where it would require but little, if any, more force to 

 move it at one season than another. Of course in all such soils it doubt- 

 less would be practical to delay the pruning until within a week or two 

 of the time it might be desirable to check growth. Especially would 

 this be the case with trees -which it might be desirable to fruit early. 

 Until the present year, we have had but little practice in root-pruning in 

 the summer, and on that account can not speak with as much certainty 

 of its effects as we could of winter pruning. Here (at Alton), this year, 

 as early as the 25th of May, pear twigs, the longest of them, had attained 

 the length of about one foot. About this time one hundred young pear 

 trees of ours, not before root-pruned, vaiying in height from seven to 

 fourteen feet, commenced to blight badly. \Ve had all these trees root- 

 pruned between the 2i^th of May and the 3nd of June. After the prun- 

 ing was completed, fully a week to ten days elapsed before terminal buds 

 on the young branches were formed; during all this time the blight 

 spread rapidly, killing some of the trees and greatly disfiguring others. 

 Had these trees been operated on in the winter or the previous summer, 

 all would ha^•e reached a necessary condition of growth in time to have 

 entirely escaped the blight. We had other trees root-pruned in all the 

 early jDart of May, at intervals, until the 3otli of the month. Those first 

 pruned wholly escaped injury, while some three or four trees pruned as 



