PRUNING. 



tent, tlioy must not only discard pruning, but budding, grafting, spade and boe 

 culture, and in fact tbe entire routine of operations wbicli constitute our present 

 advanced and comparatively perfect system of cultivation. Nature neither buds or 

 grafts, nor hoes, nor spades, nor drains, nor manures. She does not make vine 

 bordei-s nor hot-beds, build vineries nor green-houses. These are unnatural opera- 

 tions, in the estimation of some people, inasmuch as they are not natural. It is 

 right and proper that the cultivator should study nature well, for her laws cannot be 

 violated with impunity; but it is h's business to aid her by all the means which art 

 and science baa furnished him. Nature unaided does not produce Black JJamhurg 

 grapes, Bartlett pears, Newtovm Pippin apples, nor Early York peaches ; but she 

 has given us the raw material from wliich to produce all of them, and she has indica- 

 ted certain conditions necessary to their growtli and improvement. 



Nothing can appear more unnatural to the man who is ignorant of the principles 

 of cultivation, than the common treatment of foreign grapes. They are not only 

 furnished with unnatural supplies of food, but their pruning consists in cutting away 

 annually three-fourths of their young wood. Now our natural cultivator might say 

 that nature never intended the grape to be subjected to such treatment. But what 

 sort of grapes would we produce without it ? Fine fruits and beautiful trees and 

 plants are not the spontaneous production of unaided nature, but require the inter- 

 vention of a multitude of nice and skillful operations, which constitute the art of 

 gardening. Neither do men arrive at a knowledge of these operations instinctively ; 

 they are not so perfectly plain and simple as to require no study, no teaching, no 

 experience. 



Those who think and write otherwise, only deceive themselves and others. The 

 most simple mechanical art requires two or three years of an apprenticeship. A nail, 

 a pin, or a shoe peg, are very simple objects — no mystery whatever about them ; and 

 yet men cannot instinctively become peg-makers, pin-makers, or nailers. A tree is a 

 far more complicated piece of mechanism than any of these. It has an organization 

 and a life. It is composed of a multitude of parts, each of which has its functions 

 to fulfil, and all these parts bear certain relations to each other and to the life and 

 growth of the whole tree, just as each of the various parts of the apparently compli- 

 cated steam engine has a certain part to play, and is essential to the completeness and 

 efficiency of the whole. A machinist is expected to know the name and particular 

 purpose of every beam and bolt and screw of the engine which he constructs, but he 

 is not expected to acquire that knowledge instinctively. He must exercise both his 

 mind and his hands, he must think and read and practice for years, before he will 

 dare call himself a machinist or an engineer. Trees have roots and rootlets, stems, 

 branches, leaves and buds ; all these are designated by certain names, and have 

 distinct offices to perform in the process of vegetation and fruit bearing. Then there 

 are different genera and species and varieties of trees and plants, all differing in certain 

 habits of growth, and bearing and requiring different treatment as regards soil, 

 culture, climate, &c. The intelligent cultivator must be familiar with the names and ^ 

 functions of all these parts, the peculiar structure, mode of growth and bearing of the '^ 



