PRUNING. 



different genera and species and varieties ; but will it come to him intuitively, any- 

 more than a knowledge of mechanics? Let those answer who have devoted a long 

 life to the study and practice of field and garden culture, and find that at last they 

 are but learners ; and that if they were to live three times the ordinary life of man, 

 they would be learners still. 



We are not disposed to magnify the difficulties of cultivation, or to convey the 

 impression that every man may not be a successful culturist ; but we feel it our duty 

 to the young, at least, to expose the fallacy of the teaching that cultivation is so plain 

 and simple that " he that runs may read," and that those who inculcate the necessity 

 of study and research, and of minute and careful operations, are mere " enthusiastic 

 humbugs." Whoever gives ear to such absurdities, can never hope to attain eminence 

 as a cultivator. 



Pruning, as we said in the outset, is one of the most important operations connected 

 with the culture and management of trees. It is an indispensable operation to a greater 

 or less extent, from the moment when the seedling is taken from the seed bed, through 

 all the phases of its development, until its existence as a living organized body termi- 

 nates. What nurseryman transplants a stock into his nursery rows without pruning? 

 And does he not prune his young trees at one and two and three or four yearb' 

 growth, until they are ready for their final destination ? Were it not for this constant 

 annual or periodical care, a nursery would become an impenetrable jungle, and sensible 

 men who wanted trees would avoid it as they would a pestilence. Then, Avho trans- 

 plants trees into the garden or orchard without pruning ? Roots and branches are 

 necessarily submitted to this operation by every careful and skillful planter. Nor is it 

 indispensable to trees alone, but to every shrub or plant that comes within the sphere 

 of cultivation. What gardener can grow a respectable looking geranium, a rose, or a 

 fuchsia, without pruning? What is it but the effects of pruning that distinguishes 

 the magnificent specimens which figure at the exhibitions of Chiswick, from the tall, 

 lean, mis-shapen deformities that have been left to nature, and that every man feels 

 ashamed to own. There is no such thing in reality, as growing well-shaped, sym- 

 metrical trees and plants, and sustaining them in a vigorous and fruitful state, without 

 pruning. But we must say, however, that necessary and useful though it be, we 

 should greatly prefer to have it undone than done unskillfully. " The object of the 

 pruner," says Lindley, (Theory of Horticulture,) "is to diminish the number of 

 leaves and branches ; whence it may be understood how delicate are the operations 

 he has to practice, and how thorough a knowledge he ought to possess of all the laws 

 which regulate the organs of vegetation. If well-directed, pruning is one of the 

 most useful, and if ill-directed, it is among the most mischievous operations that can 

 take place upon a plant." 



Every man of experience will endorse this statement. The pruner should know 

 well what he does, and the precise reasons why he does it. Pruning is not lopping 

 off a branch at random, as a man who walks in the dark, not knowing whether he is 

 advancing on safe footing or about to step over a precipice. Every cut that a pruner 

 makes upon a tree or plant, should be guided by a knowledge of the habits of growth, 



