SUMMER MANAGEMENT. 65 



manure. Advantage should be taken to do this kind 

 of work on fine, dry days when the weeds may per- 

 ish shortly after being severed from the soil : and if 

 there be a quantity of seedlings it will be well to give 

 the ground a good rough raking after the hoe, to 

 bring the young tender weeds on the surface of the 

 ground, in order that the sun may act on them and 

 that they may shortly die, and not again re-establish 

 themselves in the soil. At this time also every walk 

 should be examined, hoed and cleared, so that every 

 part of the nursery has a cleaH and orderly appear- 

 ance. 



^The trees should also be gone over and divested 

 of any insects or other nuisances that retard their 

 growth. 



ART. 2. Summer Pruning and supporting young 

 Trees. 



When young trees have nearly made their sum- 

 mer growth, which is at the end of July, or begin- 

 ning of August, they should be pruned of all useless 

 shoots ; for this purpose a sharp knife may be used, 

 and great care should be taken that the wounds are 

 cut clean so that they may heal freely. When the in- 

 cision is badly done with rough edged tools, it is 

 seldom that they form a callous readily, and often 

 the part becomes cankered, turns black and is other- 

 wise injured, so that the connecting limbs or plants 

 are affected, and from thence in many cases the in- 

 jury extends to every part of the tree. Where trees 

 are intended -to be made standards of five or six 

 feet from dwarfs that have strong leading shoots, 

 this is a more proper time to prune off the under 

 5 



