PRUNING AND MANAGEMENT OP THE PEACH TREE. 153 



used more expeditiously than the knife, and is perfectly fitted for 

 all amputations necessary for small branches. Still, when some 

 of the stronger branches require to be cut back closely to their 

 origin on the main branch, the pruning-knife is employed in order 

 to make the amputation as near as possible to that branch, and 

 also to make a very clean cut. Again, the pruning-knife is made 

 use of for heading back young trees when planted ; and for 

 pruning the ends of the wood-branches. In fact, when the branch 

 is too strong, the pressure which the secateur occasions in cutting 

 it across often produces gum or canker, which may cause the loss 

 of the branch. This objection to the secateur exists even in the 

 case of small branches, above all, when badly adjusted ; but when 

 this instrument is well made, nothing injurious results from its 

 use, only the wound is slower in healing. The first trials of the 

 secateur at Montreuil were not favourable to it, because the 

 instruments we then had were far from being perfect. Their use, 

 in fact, was on the point of being abandoned, when M. Lemaiguan, 

 locksmith at Montreuil, applied himself to make some of great 

 superiority ; and it is to this circumstance that the almost 

 universal use of the secateur in our country is due. Messrs. 

 Arnheiter and Bernard, working locksmiths at Paris, also make 

 very good ones. * 



61. When a large branch is to be cut off, a hand-saw witli a 

 narrow and very long blade is made use of. But as the teeth of 

 the saw tear the bark and wood, the cut must be immediately 

 smoothed with the pruning-knife, and then immediately covered 

 with grafting-wax, or with grafting-clay. These precautions are 

 essential for the preservation of the tree. Whatever instrument 

 be used for pruning, it must be very sharp, so that the cut may 

 be smooth and clean. The cut should be a little oblique, the 

 knife being inserted at the side of the shoot or branch, opposite 

 the bud, and slanting through, so that the point of the slant may 

 be one- twelfth to one-sixth of an inch above the point of the bud, 

 according to the strength of the branch and the season of pruning. 

 The greatest length should be given in winter. 



II. Of Pruning, properly so called. 



62. The name of winter-pruning is given to the principal 

 pruning, because it is generally performed at that season. As for 

 us cultivators, who have a large number of trees to manage, we 



* Arnheiter, place de lAbbaye, 9; Bernard, rue Saint-Jacques, 218. 



