71 



'' abundant sap. It will be necessary to review the trees/re- 

 ' ' quently in order to reform such branches or shoots as may 

 " have taken a wrong direction and to remove any fresh 

 " irregular shoots and as the already selected ones ad- 

 f< vance in length to regulate the supply of young wood. 



" * Always cut upwards, and in a sloping direction 

 " Prune so as to leave as few wounds as possible, and let the 

 " surface of every cut be as even as possible Let the general 

 " autumnal pruning take place as soon as the gathering of the 

 " fruit will permit Lastly use a pruning knife of the best 

 " description and let it be, if possible, as sharp as a razor/' 

 The above remarks are no words of mine but are written by 

 some eminent authority on Garden Culture, and as such, 

 are decidedly worthy of perusal, and I only too deeply re- 

 gret that I had not the advantage of such sound gene- 

 ral advice myself some fifteen years ago, when I 

 distinctly remember, the only so-called authorities on pru- 

 ning available in Mysore were a Doctor in a Dragoon Regi- 

 ment who strongly advocated cutting every tree down to 

 six inches from the ground; and an impetuous tyro of a 

 planter, who studiously cut all the primaries back to the 

 first eye, in order as he stated to have another fair start. 

 I will now casually touch on the first steps in pruning, 

 which in young trees consists of Topping, a measure adopted 

 to transform a tree, naturally inclined to grow tall and lanky, 

 into a manageable shrub condensed and compact and better 

 fitted in form and nature to bear a larger crop on a rela- 

 tively more confined surface. The operation of Topping 

 throws the whole energy of the tree into the few branches 

 Which are destined to be considered as foundations for 

 elaborating horizontally the sap and vigor which would have 

 been expended in adding to the vertical increase of growth 

 and development and such branches are therefore, after the 

 operation, even more deserving of their proper name prima- 

 ries or mother branches, and as such in their infancy, 



*Pag<T482~~ 



