ORCHARDS. 97 



and best quality of fruit, with less labor than in any other 

 mode. The bright sun of our clime reaching through and 

 pervading all parts of the tree, supersedes the necessity of 

 those nice and minute systems, of pruning, so largely illus- 

 trated and described by British authors on fruit culture. Such 

 practice is of little or no use here, and our favorable climate 

 gives us all this advantage over their particular and tedious 

 operations in this branch of tree culture, made necessary by 

 an uncongenial climate. 



With respect to standards^ Mr. Bucknall says, it will "be 

 advisable to shorten their branches only, when they are either 

 too luxuriant, or, by growing irregularly, divert the current of 

 the sap, and consequently weaken the whole. In such case, 

 the more vigorous sprouts ought to be closely cut down, in 

 order to strengthen the other parts ; but these amputations 

 should not be performed on stone fruit trees, which are very 

 liable to become affected with the gum, and thus, in a short 

 time, to perish. It will, therefore, be necessary in the lat- 

 ter instance, to pinch the straggling shoots early in the 

 Spring .... But all decaying, or apparently dead branches, 

 whether belonging to wall or other fruit trees, ought to be 

 pruned close to the stem ; because by attracting noxious par- 

 ticles from the air, and admitting too great a degree of moist- 

 ure into the tree, such useless parts contaminate the halsamic 

 virtues of the sap, and thus eventually cause the destruction 

 of the tree, by affording a nest in which insects will deposit 

 their eggs . . . Lastly, all branches that intersect each 

 other and thus occasion a confusion in the crown of the tree, 

 ought likewise to be carefully removed ; and as vigorous 

 young shoots often spring from old arms near the trunk, and 

 grow up into the head, they must be annually exterminated ; 

 lest they should fill the tree w4th too much wood. 



In regard to the proper period for commencing this opera- 

 tion on fruit trees, especially in orchards, Mr. Bucknall is 

 of opinion that pruning should be practiced in the nursery, 

 and regularly continued to "the extremity of old age." Thus 

 it will be advisable to take off only a small quantity of wood 

 at one time; and by employing his '' medication,'' (or some 

 8 



