1869.] THE PRUNING OF FRUIT TREES. 



223 



•'half- winged." They are developed on the anterior side, and are cut down 

 nearly to the costa, the lobes being more or less deeply parted in a bifid manner, 

 and bearing the short davallioid sori across the end of the segments. It is a 

 very free-growing species under basket treatment, if kept in a moist stove, planted 

 in porous materials, and kept duly supplied with water. M. 



THE PRUNING OF FRUIT TREES, 



AS AFFECTED BY DIFFERENCES OF SOIL, CLIMATE, STOCKS, ETC.* 



^j^RUIT Trees are, it is to be presumed, mainly cultivated for the sake of 

 (M^ their fruit, and much may be accomplished towards this end by a rational 

 f^f* system of pruning. The judicious pruning or non-pruning of fruit trees 

 C( £ is a question far more important .than that of training, with which it is 

 frequently confounded. Training is the producing of form — an ornamental part 

 of the business, but pruning is chiefly performed for the sake of securing fruit. 

 To prune a fruit tree is a very different thing from pruning any other sort of 

 tree, inasmuch as the production of fruit is much more difficult than that of 

 timber, or mere form. It is easy to grow a tree and prune it so that it may 

 assume any desired form or size, but to make that tree produce good fruit in 

 large quantity, and of good quality, requires much more skill and knowledge. 



To prune a tree is to cut off a portion of its stem or branches, and the object 

 to be attained is to regulate the vegetation of the plant. The immediate effect of 

 pruning, or the cutting-off of any portion of- a plant, is to cause the parts which are 

 left to increase more rapidly. Thus, if a tree is growing vigorously and making- 

 strong unfruitful shoots, the effect of pruning it back in winter is to increase its 

 vigour, instead of repressing it. All winter pruning, or pruning after active 

 vegetation has ceased, results in producing greater vigour in a plant ; therefore, a 

 vigorous, healthy-growing tree requires less pruning than a weakly-growing one. 



A special point to be aimed at in fruit-culture is equality of growth, and 

 thereby uniformity of action throughout all the parts of the tree. The most 

 unfruitful of all trees are those in which one portion is allowed to have a great 

 ascendancy over the others. The stronger portions of these have then to be 

 repressed, and the weaker portions encouraged. Excessive vigour is undesirable, 

 as trees in that condition bear but a small quantity of fruit ; yet it is as possible 

 for a tree to be too weak, and to produce too many small fruits. 



A glance at the natural tree vegetation of the country will show that soil 

 exerts a powerful influence thereupon. Thus it will be seen that in one 

 locality the trees are of a dwarf, stunted character, and perhaps very fertile, 

 while in another, they are rampant and vigorous. In the one case, we have 

 probably poor, sandy soil, and an exposed situation ; and in the other, deep 

 alluvial loam and comparative shelter. Good fruit may be produced in each 

 situation, yet under very different conditions. Here, then, is Nature teaching us, 



* Abridged from a paper read before the Royal Horticultural Society at Manchester, July, 1869. 



