LESSONS FROM PEUNING. 289 



admit the sunlight and air, and also to relieve the weak and crowded 

 condition of an unthrifty, enfeebled tree ; and, behold ! many times 

 the tree is regenerated and becomes a healthy, fruitful one. Such 

 a practice would be worse than useless with a healthy, productive 

 tree. 



Sometimes we prune the roots of trees, thus checking the growth 

 of leaves and directing the nutritive matter in the sap to the produc- 

 tion of fruit. 



In England and in our eastern states, pruning is much more 

 systematically done than here ; but there is usually a great difference 

 in climatic conditions, although I imagine that our past wet sea- 

 son is more of a coincidence than a contrast to their usual moist 

 climate. 



When a child, in the east, I remember watching a relative prune 

 her grape vines. When she had finished, there seemed to be com- 

 paratively little of the vine left. With awe, mingled with fear, I 

 watched her deft hands as she slashed right and left ; but each 

 season rewarded her with the finest grapes from the most productive 

 vines of the neighborhood. I remember, too, the grounds of anoth- 

 er eastern relative filled with evergreens of many kinds, trimmed in 

 fantastic shape. One, an arbor vitae, was a perfect beauty, but so 

 different in shape from the others that I inquired the reason and 

 found that several years after first planting, a cow had jumped into 

 the inclosure and broken off the top of the tree. This was butchery 

 indeed, and yet the result in after years was a tree of perfect beauty. 



I have just returned from a trip east, and while traveling through 

 Indiana and New York, I noticed from the car windows that the 

 farmers were harvesting their apple crop. I also noticed that in- 

 variably the apples, as they lay in piles on the ground, were larger 

 and finer colored under the thrifty trees judiciously trimmed to 

 allow the entrance of air and sunshine, and evidently well cared for 

 in every way and treated as money-makers. It is easier to mature 

 a fruit tree and bring it to productiveness in the east than here, but, 

 on the other hand, the tree has more enemies, because the country 

 has longer been occupied. 



We, too, are beginning to realize that we must spray and prune 

 wisely, if we succeed in raising much fruit. 



My late eastern trip was caused by the sudden death of a broth- 

 er-in-law. He was in usual health and was engaged in trimming 

 off the superfluous branches of some fine maple trees on the street in 

 front of his residence. He trimmed one small tree, then carried the 

 ladder to the foot of a much larger tree, placed it in position, tested 

 it to see if it was safe and then, with saw in hand, fell backward 



