112 THE APPLE CULTUIUST. 



perfect understanding of what he desires to accomplish by 

 pruning. Before he severs a single bud, he should under- 

 stand the laws of vegetable physiology, so far as they affect 

 the flow of sap. There is no chance for correcting bad 

 mistakes in pruning. If one pinches off a bud that should 

 remain^ it will be ruinous to the form of the tree or bush. 

 The practice, with a great many persons who have had the 

 management of orchards, has long been, and even now is, 

 to allow the trees to grow at random for several years, and 

 then walk into the tops with axe and saw, removing half 

 the branches. There was never a more ruinous practice to 

 any kind of trees ; and there was never a more egregious 

 error promulgated, than to allow a bush or tree to grow at 

 pleasure for a few years, and then give it a thorough and 

 severe priming. The ruinous consequences of such prun- 

 ing are manifest, wherever large apple-trees are found, in 

 the decaying trunks at those points w r here large branches 

 were cut off; and because the wounds were so large, Na- 

 ture could not heal them. 

 Pruning Trees of any Kind is a Science. 



The novice at pruning, like urchins at school, 



With long observation must study each rule: 



Why prune in the summer ? Why prune in the fall ? 



Or why in the winter ? Or why prune at all ? EDWABDS. 



When a surgeon is about to amputate a man's limb, he 

 can assign a satisfactory reason for the operation. So 

 when a pomologist is about to prune off certain branches, 

 he should first ask, What do I propose to accomplish by 

 removing this part of the tree ? Sometimes, when he thinks 

 that the removal of a branch will improve the general shape 

 of the tree, let him bend the branch a little out of its nat- 

 ural place, so as to show how the tree would look if this 

 limb were cut off; and if the result is not satisfactory, 

 don't cut it. There is a tendency to trim too much. Be- 

 ware of this overdoing the matter. There was a time when 



