LESSONS FROM PRUNING. 29 1 



An experienced horticulturist says : "The ennobhng influences 

 of horticulture should be an encouragement to those who have only- 

 been measurably successful financially, for there are things that are 

 better than money — things that are more enduring than piles of 

 brick and mortar ; and as to importance, character-building should 

 be held in higher estimation than architecture, and desirable results 

 can be secured by combining horticulture with moral instruction. 

 The vanity and pride of life may be rebuked with the thought that 

 even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like the flowers that 

 grow in the fields. There was such a sacred sentiment in olden 

 times, that it was commanded that in time of war the fruit trees 

 should not be destroyed, and to this day only barbarians destroy fruit 

 trees at such times. Trees, plants and flowers appeal to the noblest 

 sentiments of our nature, and if combining their usefulness and 

 education advances both interests, so much the better." 



Mr. W. L. Taylor: I would like to call out a little discussion 

 on pruning. In fact, there was an article read yesterday on pruning, 

 and there was no opportunity given for discussion, and I would not 

 like to have the sentiment expressed in that paper yesterday go out 

 as the sense of the society without some opportunity for discussion. 

 The writer stated among other things that he would not prune until 

 September first. I do not think that idea finds general support among 

 the members of the society. I would like to know what time others 

 do their pruning. 



(Note.— The article referred to above immediately precedes this.) 



Mr. A. J. Philips (Wis.) : I have done a little pruning in my 

 lifetime, but after I heard that paper read yesterday I made up my 

 mind that I had done a great deal of wrong work. My idea is 

 not to cut the limbs until the growth starts in the spring; they heal 

 over better and are better able to withstand the winter than if cut 

 late in the fall. I always keep wax with me, and I wax the wound 

 over if over half an inch in thickness so as to give them a chance 

 to heal over. He said that during the summer they bleed, but I 

 have never noticed that. I received my first lessons in pruning from 

 Mr. Peffer, of Pewaukee. He was a gentleman whose opinion in 

 horticultural matters I always respected, and he was a man who 

 had a reason for everything he did, and he believed they would 

 stand the winter better. Little Umbs I cut in the fall, I cut them 

 away from the tree because the winter does not affect them. 



Mr. Geo. J. Kellogg (Wis.) : There was no chance to put in 

 a word after the paper was read yesterday, but the gentleman ad- 

 vocated fall pruning. There is an object lesson which came under 

 my observation, and Mr. Philips can corroborate it ; we always 

 swear to what each other says anyway. I know of an instance 

 where a man planted some apple trees, and when they began to 

 bear he found they were sour and sharp, and he became disappointed 

 with them and tried to kill his trees. He slashed off the limbs in 

 the fall, cut them off with an axe, cut off the limbs, and left noth- 



