CHAPTER IV. 



PRUNING AND AFTER-MANAGEMENT. 



With fruit trees, "summer pinching, as well as limb and 

 root pruning, are often resorted to for the purpose of pro- 

 ducing fruitfulness ; but in the case of ornamental trees, 

 pruning is seldom necessary, except to preserve a sym- 

 metrical shape and to remove all unhealthy or dead 

 branches. 



The entire system of pruning a Conifer depends very 

 much upon the same principles that govern the trees of 

 other classes, with the exception that almost every species 

 of the Conifers has a tendency to the conical form, and 

 this peculiarity should therefore always be encouraged 

 during the trimming process. 



Many a cultivator, through a mistaken idea of beauty, 

 utterly spoils his trees by pruning off the lower branches, 

 and thus forming a long, naked body to the tree, most 

 disagreeable to the eye of an intelligent planter. 



In pruning the branches of an evergreen, always select 

 a strong bud to cut back to, thus allowing a chance for 

 the limb to start apparently from the end bud, and thus pre- 

 vent the artificial means that have been employed from be- 

 ing observed. An excellent plan to preserve a perfect shape, 

 is to extract the centre bud from any shoot that projects 

 beyond the proper limits. The remaining buds will form 

 branches which are induced to spread apart, and in a dif- 

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