96 



PRUNING. 



[chap. v. 



have their full influence in exciting the bark to 

 cover the wound. When a long piece of a 

 branch, or what gardeners call a snag, is left 

 beyond the bud, it withers, from there being 

 no leaves beyond it to carry on the circulation 

 of the sap; and it thus not only becomes a 

 deformity, but very often seriously injures the 

 tree, by rotting, and infecting the fruit-bearing 

 branch to which it is attached. 



The secateur of the French (Jig. 18.) is a 

 still more useful instrument than the English 

 pruning-shears, as it is much 

 more powerful ; and it is, in- 

 deed, so efficacious that it is 

 generally used in France for 

 pruning fruit trees. 



According to the usual 

 method of pruning with a 

 knife, the gardener holds the 

 branch in his left hand, be- 

 low 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 section. This opera- 

 tion, however, requiring strength as well as 

 skill, it will generally be safer for a lady to use 

 only her pruning-shears, or a secateur, which 

 will be sufficient to cut through the largest 

 branch that a lady would be able to remove. 

 For removing dead roses, &c, it may be suffi- 

 cient to use a pair of garden scissors fixed to a 



Fig- 18. 



THE SECATEUR. 



