18 PRUNING OP FRUIT TRBB8. 



PEUKENG OF FEUIT TEEES. 



When is tlie best time for pruning fruit trees, is a question 

 often asked, to wliich. the reply of an old gardener was more 

 appropriate than polite, who answered " whenever your knife is 

 sharp." If fruit trees are properly attended to and pruned every 

 year as much as is requisite, they will need but very little 

 pruning at any time, and it is not of much moment when that 

 little is done. The words of the lamented Downing should be 

 graven upon the memory of every one who takes knife in hand 

 against his fruit trees. He says, "A judicious pruning, to modify 

 the form of our standard trees, is nearly aU that is required in 

 ordinary practice. Every fruit tree, grown in the open orchard 

 or garden as a common standard, should be allowed to take its 

 natural form, the whole efforts of the pruner going no further 

 than to take out all weak and crowded branches, those which are 

 filling uselessly the interior of the tree, where their leaves cannot 

 be duly exposed to the light and sim, or those which interfere 

 with the growth of others. All pruning of large branches in 

 healthy trees should be rendered unnecessary, by examining them 

 every season, and taking out superfluous shoots while they are 

 small." 



Yet there is a best time for pruning, and that time depends 

 upon the object for which the pruning is done. The two pur- 

 poses most commonly intended are aU that it wiU be necessary 

 here to speak of, namely, pruning to regulate the form of standard 

 trees, and pruning to induce fruitfulness. 



In PRUNING TO regulate THE FORM of standard trees, i£ 

 the trees have been properly cared for every year, it will only be 

 necessary to remove small branches, and this may be best done 

 in our climate after the severe frosty weather of our winters is 

 passed, and before the sap is in full flow. This will be in March 

 or early in AprU, varying with the season and locality. K done 

 at this time, the sap will not have fully ascended into the branch 

 that is taken away, and will be directed into the remaining por- 



