206 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



one reason. But there is a disadvantao'e which has not been 

 alhided to here in pruning in June. A tree has then made 

 part of its growth. Everything about it is then in the most 

 tender condition. The wood that has grown has not ripened 

 at all, and if you saw a limb off in the top of the tree and 

 slip it down through, you injure the tree itself; you strip off 

 the foliage of the tree, which you do not wish to injure at all. 

 It is injurious to pull limbs down through a tree when it is 

 making its tender growth, and June is therefore a bud time 

 of year on that account. There is another suggestion, and 

 that is, that a season of the year when the foliage is not on 

 the tree is preferable to any other to cut the limbs, because 

 you can see where to prune better than you can when the tree 

 is full of leaves. You can see what limbs to cut out. You 

 can see what branches are starting from one side of the tree 

 and pushing over to the other, where they are very sure to 

 come in contact with some other branch. A tree should be 

 pruned so that the branches will radiate from the centre, not 

 spread from one side to the other ; those are sure to cross 

 after a time. 



My idea about pruning is, that it is an unnatural operation. 

 I would never cut off a limb of a tree, if I could possibly help 

 it, any more than I would cut off one of my children's lingers, 

 unless it was diseased. It is all unnatural ; but if you find a 

 limb going where it ought not to go, it is better to take it 

 out, and thus prevent its throwing itself across another limb 

 and producing a wound which will result in the destruction 

 of both. 



Now, as to the matter of changing the bearing year of the 

 tree. That, I am satisfied, can be done, and in a different way 

 from what has been suggested here. I accidentally learned 

 how that could be accomplished wdien clearing a piece of 

 nursery ground which had standard trees set in it, late in the 

 season. The uurser}'^ had been pretty well sold, and at the 

 end, there w^ere so few trees standing, that I thought it advis- 

 able to clear the ground, put it in condition, and let the 

 standards take up the whole ground. I did so, soon after the 

 spring sales were over, and the trees that remained were 

 nearly worthless, and most of them, I presume, were put into 

 the brush-pile. Then I cultivated the ground, and applied 



