I 



THE THEORY OF PRUNING. 



the healthy habits of the fruit tree. Without attempting a scientific classification, I thinl- 

 trees and plants cultivated for their fruits, would admit of a rude division into three class- 

 es, viz: First, those which develop the bloom Avith or without an attendant system of 

 leaves, before the bursting and growth of the wood-buds. Second, those performing the 

 wood growth of the season before the development and expansion of the bloom, and third, 

 those bearing fruit upon branches of the current j'^ear, which branches continue to elongate 

 after the bloom has been developed. The Quince and the Orange are examples of the se- 

 cond clacs. In these cases it would seem but maternal kindness on the part of nature, to 

 instal these fruitlets into the most favorable position, having to contend, as they do, for 

 subsistence, even in infancy, with the fully developed leaves of the wood system. In these 

 instances, however, in which nature herself dispossesses the wood system, she restores the 

 possession on the ripening of the fruit, by a sort of shortening-in. In the first class, em- 

 bracing the apple, pear, and many others, there exists no adequate necessity for giving to 

 the fruitlet the same " vantage ground," The fruits setting before the development of 

 the leaves and branches of the wood system, they begin to draw upon the circulation for 

 subsistence, and are not only capable of competing for a share of the sap, but in excessive 

 crops entirely suspend the wood growth; again, it is hardly reasonable to infer that nature 

 designed this as their normal position, since she has not provided for the contingency 

 of keeping up a supply of wood in those parts, by restoring the extremities to the posses- 

 sion of the wood system at the end of each crop, as in case of the Quince. But, on 

 the other hand, the ajjple, and some others, bear their fruit in terminal clusters, the cen- 

 ter of which are buds, which buds will continue to point the extremity of the brandies 

 with additional fruit buds, until removed by accident or the knife, or until the branch it- 

 self shall perish from loss of wood. 



In the third class, the Pecan and Chestnut, among trees, also the vine and melon among 

 plants, might be enumerated. It is a well known fact, that the Pecan and Chestnut, 

 under cultivation, produce abortive fruits for many years before they come into success- 

 ful bearing, if the annual growth continue vigorous and luxuriant. So too, every body 

 does, or may know, that if a single cluster each, of grapes, be permitted to grow upon two 

 branches of equal vigor, upon any vine, and if one of those branches, being headed back 

 to within one or two joints of the cluster, is kept free from suckers, whilst the other is left 

 to grow at will, making a length of ten, fifteen, or even twentj' feet, that at the season of 

 maturity the long branch will have diminutive berries, some shriveled, some ripe, some 

 green — whilst the amputated branch will bear a broad-shouldered cluster, with berries, 

 each one of which has pressed his neighbor so sorely for space to expand, that all have lost 

 their rotundity. 



To me it seems hardly to admit of a doubt, that failure in both these cases is attribu- 

 table to the power of the wood-bud system, in a state of active growth, to starve out in- 

 fant fruits, over which it has the advantagcTin position, as it always has when located at 

 the ends of the branches. 



I think the following experiment will tend to show that when even annuals display simi- 

 lar habits, the same general laws prevail. Some years ago I witnessed an experiment of 

 an amateur cultivator in growing the watermelon. Having made a ver}' early planting 

 upon a small square in a village garden, in consequence of inclement weather, but four 

 plants vegetated. Somewhat resolute in temperament, and impatient of defeat, he deter- 

 mined to try by extra culture, and the appliance of all the expedients of the cultivator's 

 art, to raise a crop from these plants, which were over twenty feet apart. The branches 

 were constrained to take such <directions as to cover the whole space, and in order to keep 



