70 The Garden. 



ground, as they naturally will in open ground. Your orna- 

 mental trees will thus be more beautiful, and your fruit-trees 

 more likely to bear well. 



Everything that is favorable to rapid and vigorous growth is 

 unfavorable to immediate fruitfulness, hence pruning to induce 

 fruitfulness is performed after vegetation has commenced. This 

 checks the growth of the wood, impedes the circulation of the 

 sap, and promotes the formation of fruit. Top pruning or 

 shortening-in is the most common form of pruning to induce 

 fruitfulness. Pruning the roots has a similar effect. The oper- 

 ation of root pruning is thus performed : 



At a few feet from the trunk of the tree, varying the dis- 

 tance according to its size, dig a circular ditch around it, 

 eighteen or twenty inches deep, cutting off all the lateral roots 

 smoothly, close to the circular mass of earth in which the tree 

 stands, removing the outer pieces of roots from the surrounding 

 ground, as much as can be done conveniently. Fill up the 

 trench with good, rich soU, and the tree will, in this country, 

 generally be brought into a permanent fruit-bearing state. 

 Repeating the operation annuall}^, apples, pears, and other 

 fruit-trees may be rendered productive dwarfs — even so as to 

 be planted only six or eight feet apart. And, if at the same 

 time we apply the sliortening-in process above described, they 

 may be kept in a beautiful pyramidal form, and rendered very 

 profitable. This work may be done in autumn, in winter, or 

 early in the spring. 



Pruning ought to be performed with sharp tools. When the 

 saw is used, the ends of the limbs should afterward be care- 

 fully pared with a knife. They should then be covered with 

 some composition to protect them from the weather. Down- 

 ing's Gum-Shellac is admirably adapted to this purpose. This 

 preparation is made by dissolving a quantity of the gum in 

 alcohol, so that the composition shall be of the consistency of 

 thin molasses. The liquid should be kept in a wide-mouthed 

 bottle, the cork of which should have a wire (running through 

 it into the bottle), with a sponge attached to the end of it. 



