70 PRUNING. 
dener holds the branch in his left hand, below the part 
that is to be removed ; and then, holding the knife firmly 
with the thumb at the back of the blade, he makes a 
strong cut upwards, and from him, so as to remove the 
branch with a single stroke, and to leave a slanting sec- 
tion. This operation, however, requiring strength as well 
as skill, it will generally be safer for a lady to use only 
her pruning shears, which will be sufficient to cut 
through the largest branch that a lady would be able to 
remove ; or to use a pair of garden scissors fixed to a 
pole, which may be lengthened or taken to pieces like a 
fishing-rod, as is practised by Captain Mangles. The 
scissors are strong and sharp, and are made to act by 
means of a long cord, which passes through rings down 
the side of thepole. The principal use of these scissors 
is to remove dead roses, &c., but they will also cut off 
a branch of dead wood, &c. When a large branch is to 
be removed, it is generally necessary to cut a notch out 
of it on each side, and then to divide the remainder with 
a pruning knife, or a small saw; but this is an opera- 
tion that most ladies will prefer leaving to a gardener. 
In all cases, the great art of pruning consists in making 
a clean sharp cut, so as to leave the bark in a healthy 
state to make an effort to cover over the wound, and m 
pruning sufficiently near a bud not to leave any dead 
wood. 
The time for pruning is either early in spring, after 
all danger is over from frost, but before the sap has 
begun to move; or in winter, after the movement of 
the sap for the summer has ceased. Summer prun- 
ing is also necessary with some trees; but, generally 
speaking, it should be confined to rubbing off all buds, 
which would produce unnecessary shoots, as soon as 
they appear. This operation is called disbudding, and 
| it is highly efficacious in sparing the strength of the tree. 
any persons pinch off the points of those shoots which appear to 
