CULTURE OF FRUIT TREES. PRUNING. 29 



with dead branches arid unproductive wood. These trees 

 are too old and un-get-at-able to be brought to order by 

 any common treatment, but they need not therefore be 

 despised and rooted up untried, for excellent old sorts 

 are often hidden in their ungainly growth, and may be 

 brought forth to show themselves with a little care, 

 whereas it would take years to supply their place with 

 young trees in good bearing. Leave such trees in their 

 unsightly ugliness until the fall of the leaf. In the 

 meantime taste the fruit, if any opportunity for so doing 

 be given, to ascertain if it have capabilities. 



"When leaves and sap are down, take saw and pruning- 

 knife in hand, and have no mercy on the old trees, but 

 cut away most liberally, yet judiciously, of course. 

 First remove all the dead wood, sawing off the dead or 

 dying branches down to the trunk with a smooth, clean 

 cut, and if the white round left be an eyesore, it can be 

 rubbed over with a little dark earth, rubbed up with 

 cow manure. After this, thin out the branches well, 

 leaving the middle of the tree quite open, and every 

 branch divided from its neighbours by space enough to 

 let in plenty of air, light, and sun, and prune the remain- 

 ing branches in the right way, according to the kind. 

 G-et a scrubbing-brush, soft or other soap, and plenty of 

 water, and scrub all the bark of the trees, trunk and 

 branches, as far as can be got at, thoroughly clean of 

 moss, lichen, dirt, and insects. If the trees be very 

 much reduced, a mulching of manure, to soak in with 

 winter rains, may do good. 



Destruction, root and branch, is often recommended 

 by gardeners, but this careful reformatory treatment of 

 the old trees, with little more trouble and less expense 

 than % planting new ones, will often prove much more 

 satisfactory in the look of the garden and in the fruit 

 crop. As I said before, old fruit trees of fine sorts are 

 not to be despised. 



