130 



THE APPLE CULTURIST. 



m 



An apple-tree pruned wrongly. 



Fi s- 59 - Injurious Prun- 



ing. Fig. 59 rep- 

 resents a style of 

 pruning which has 

 been, and still is, in 

 vogue from Maine 

 to California. The 

 system may prop- 

 erly be denomina- 

 ted tree - murder- 

 ing. Let this be 

 compared with the 

 well - pruned tree, 

 p. 117, and it will 

 be perceived at 

 once that the sys- 

 tem illustrated by 

 Fig. 59 is exceedingly defective. And yet, this is a fail- 

 type of the form which the usual treatment of fruit-trees 

 produces. It may be perceived that the whole growth 

 of young wood and leaves is in the upper part of the 

 tree-top. This occurs in obedience to a law of vegeta- 

 ble growth, which gives greater development to the termi- 

 nal buds, and to those shoots which are nearest to the ex- 

 tremities of the branches. This tendency is very much in- 

 creased by the pruning which has been practised by the 

 cultivator, who evidently had a very indefinite idea of the 

 objects to be obtained by this operation. Yet, having heard 

 from his infancy that fruit-trees should be pruned, with 

 such generalities for his guide in the way of instructions 

 as " thin out the top," " take out weak or decaying branch- 

 es," " keep the head of the tree open," etc., he has applied 

 axe and saw to the limbs most conveniently reached, es- 

 pecially as he finds these to be the weaker branches. In 



