PRUNING. 



5' 



Fig. 2238. 



tree with its natural inclination to upward 

 growth, sent up numbers of strong vigorous 

 shoots, presenting a puzzling problem for 

 the pruner to solve. 



Fifg. 2238 shows a tree improperly 

 pruned, partially illustrating our remarks 

 under this head. 



Another very common error in the pruning 

 of apple trees is the sawing of a imb so as 

 to leave a stump, as in Fig. 2239. Nature 

 may try as she will, but she cannot hea 

 such a wound ; her only way is to withdraw 

 nourishment from the useless stub until it 

 dies and finally breaks off, only to leave a 

 hole into the tree for the entrance of decay. 

 The correct method is to cut close to the 

 main stem as shown in Fig. 2240 where D 

 points out a wound now about healed over, 

 and C and E recent cuts properly made. 



Where large cuts must be made, in con- 



sequence of long neglect, the wounds should 

 always be painted or varnished over so as to 

 exclude decay, until nature has done her 

 best to heal them over. But in our opinion 

 the fruit grower who really understands the 

 art as well as the science of his vocation, 

 will never need to butcher his trees. From 

 the very first he will study the natural habit 

 of the tree, and find out whether it is upright 

 and somewhat pyramidal like the Northern 

 Spy, and the Cooper's Market, or spreading 

 like the Greening and the Roxbury Russet, 

 and every year he will prune to favor that nat- 

 ural habit of his tree. By attention to each 

 tree, at least twice a year, once in the rest- 

 ing season and once in the growing season, 

 he will make the whole vigor of his tree 

 shape itself toward one ideal form, and none 



Fig. 2239. 



Fig. 2240. 



Fig. 2241. 



of the strength of its growth will be wasted. 

 Thus he will sooner have fruit, and an or- 

 chard into which he can invite his brother 

 fruit growers with pride and pleasure. Fig. 

 2241 shows a tree pruned with some judg- 

 ment and may serve to illustrate what has 

 been said upon this subject. 



Tree butchery, or the cutting away of 

 large limbs, referred to above, not only en- 

 feebles the tree by reason of the decay thus 

 developed, but it tends to throw the strength 

 of the tree into water sprouts instead of into 

 the fruit spurs. 



A Wrong Method. — The grower in such a 

 case is beginning his work from the wronc; 

 place ; he is beginning at the centre when he 



