ON PRUNING APPLE ORCHARDS. 



423 



actually take place. The tree then commen- 

 ces rottmg at the heart, and hastens to pre- 

 mature decay. 



But let us be properly understood upon 

 this subject. We do not go entirely against 

 trimming apple trees. It is only against the 

 system of trimming as comvionly practiced, 

 that we enter our protest. When trees are 

 young, their heads may be formed, and their 

 branches thinned with the pruning knife, but 

 the shoots should be amputated the same 

 season they start, before their physiological 

 arrangement shall have become permanent. 

 But the less carving is done about a tree, 

 the greater will be its growth, and the more 

 perfect its health — and shall I add, the more 



splendid its fruit. 



C. Springer. 



Miodow Farm, Ohio., Feb. 3, 1847. 



Remarks. — The injudicious practice of 

 pruning apple orchards, common in many 

 parts of this country, is justly condemned in 

 the forgeoing article. But pruning, proper- 

 ly performed, is of great advantage to most 

 fruit trees. Mr. Springer is right that the 

 over-pruning of many apple orchards greatly 

 lessens the crop — but on the other hand, in 

 the case of the peach tree, as has been 

 proved a thousand times, judicious pruning 

 increases the size and quality of the fruit, 

 and doubles the life of the tree. 



We find the following excellent and time- 

 ly remarks on this subject, from the pen of 

 Dr. Lindley, in a late number of the Gar- 

 dening journal edited by him, which we ex- 

 tract for the benefit of our readers. Ed. 



The general principles ot'pruning, as distinguish- 

 ed from handwork, are few in numlier, and among 

 the easiest of all things to understand; but their 

 application is manifold, often difficult, and alwaj'S 

 special. For example, it is an axiom that hard 

 pruning produces barrenness, and that slight prun- 

 ing Icails to productiveness; a second well known 

 law is that the removal of one bud or branch 

 strengthens another ; a third law teaches us, that to 



stop a branch by cutting away its extremity, com- 

 pels what is left to produce side branches, which 

 might not have otherwise appeared. Then again, 

 the necessity for using the pruning-knife at all is 

 often obviated by the employment of the fisijer and 

 thumb; that is to say, a young branch may be 

 prevented from appearing by pinching off its bud 

 as soon as it begins to push, as well as by first al- 

 lowing it to grow, and then removing it — and bet- 

 ter. All these, and all such, facts are plain to the 

 meanest capacity; the difficulty is how to apply 

 them, and when, and where. The answer to such 

 questions is only to be found in experience, and in 

 a very careful examination of the peculiar mode of 

 growth of each species of tree to be operated on. 

 For no two species of tree can be found of which 

 it is the nature to grow, and flower, and fruit, ex- 

 actly in the same way, and every variation in the 

 manner of growing, flowering, and fruiting, de- 

 mands a corresponding variation in the mode of 

 applying the principles of pruning. 



We know, indeed, of but one general fact which 

 may be, we would rather say should be, invariably 

 attended to, and that is the universal necessity of 

 keeping branches thin. Light in abundance, and 

 the freest circulation of air among leaves, are of 

 vital importance to all plants; but these cannot be 

 secured unless the branches are left thin. A crowd 

 of branches implies a crowd of leaves, and in a 

 crowd leaves can neither breathe nor perspire, nor 

 feed; in fact they are smothered. But when they 

 stand well apart, they breathe freely, perspire pro- 

 fusely, and feed incessantly; the result of which 

 consists in fine strong stiff shoots and dark green 

 fat leaves, instead of spindling twigs and yellow 

 weasened foliage. 



It is true that this statement appears at first sight 

 to be opposed to a common physiological axiom 

 that the health of a plant is in proportion to the 

 number of its leaves; because it is probable that a 

 well thinned fruit tree will have much fewer leaves 

 than a plant left to grow wild. But the axiom 

 alluded to is put in inexact words; as our corres- 

 pondent "W." very properly remarked in last 

 week's paper, it is not the mere number of leaves 

 that determines the health of most plants, but the 

 superficial area of foliage exposed to light and 

 air; a material dilTerence. For example, suppose 

 that one branch has but 10 leaves, the whole area 

 of which shall be expressed by the number 100; 

 and that another branch has 20 leaves, the area of 

 which shall be equal to 120; the inference would 

 not be that the latter would conduce to the health 

 of a plant more than the former, unless it could 

 also be shown that the 20 leaves were each as 

 well lighted and aired as the 10, which in the 

 head of a tree would be improbable. And if the 

 20 leaves had only an area of 90, it is clear that 

 they would be less efTective than the 10 having an 

 area of 100, all other circumstances being equal. 

 Of course we do not mean that a gardener is to 

 calculate the exact superficial contents of a leaf 

 before he can tell whether to remove it or not; 

 we only put the argument into this form for the 

 sake of illustration. 



