206 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Pruning. Much has been written in regard to the season of the 

 year for pruning. I do not regard it of so much consequence when it 

 is done, as how it is done. Theoretically, the best time is after the 

 trees have commenced to set their fruit in June until October. The 

 wounds are not so likely to bleed, and will heal over and leave the 

 wood sound beneath. The early spring months are usually the most 

 convenient for this purpose, and I never could perceive any injury 

 to the tree ; but it is absolutely necessary that the wounds be cov- 

 ered with a coat of paint. Red ochre and linseed oil mixed together 

 quite thick and put on rather liberally with a brush, is as cheap and 

 as good as anything. 



Be sparing of your trimming the first year, cut out limbs abso- 

 lutely dead, and be sure to cut them as near to the trunk as possible, 

 especially on the lower side of the limb. Have an eye constantly 

 to the limbs suitable for grafting the next year. Take out small 

 limbs that cross each other, so as to have your tree shaped nearly 

 like a spread umbrella inverted. Trees that have a sickly look, or 

 whose main branches are dead, or whose bark is dead over half of 

 its body, should, as a general thing, be cut down, and their places 

 supplied with young trees. In ten years you will have a healthy 

 young tree just into bearing, while the old one, with all your care, 

 will be an old, sickly-looking tree still, and non productive. A tree 

 may be hollow, and yet be a suitable tree to graft. Do not trust to 

 a sprout from an old tree. It rarely ever amounts to anything. 

 Dig out the whole tree, and spread on a load of manure, and culti- 

 vate one year before you put another tree in its place. Without 

 this, a tree will not succeed well in the place of another. Some- 

 times an old tree may be delayed for several years before it is 

 grafted. The extremities of the large limbs may be cut off and 

 painted, and new shoots be suffered to spring out, which may be 

 grafted and make a fine tree. In no case trim your trees so as to 

 expose the naked limbs to the hot sun. If you do, the bark will be 

 killed the whole length of the limb, and frequently be the cause of 

 death to the tree. 



Trees that are covered with moss should be scraped and washed 

 with a weak solution of lime, potash, or soda, ioea/c, I say, because 

 many trees have been killed by too strong an application of these 

 substances. 



