PRUNING. 301 



ture. The most general object of pruning is to create an abundant 

 supply of sap during summer by the production of leaf-shoots, by 

 which the general strength of the tree is augmented, and to limit the 

 distribution of this sap when it ascends from the roots in the following 

 spring, by diminishing the number of buds. The effect of this is to 

 increase the vigour of the shoots or fruits produced by these buds ; 

 and if this be done in such a manner as to obtain also the greatest 

 advantages from light and air, the pruning will have answered its 

 purpose. If a fruit tree were not deprived every year of a part of the 

 wood or the buds which it produces, its shoots and fruits would 

 gradually diminish in size, and though the fruit would be more nume- 

 rous it would be deficient in succulence and flavour, as we find to be 

 the case in old neglected orchard trees. The application of pruning to 

 fruit trees differs so much according to the species of tree that the 

 subject can only be properly treated by taking each class separately. 

 Thus kernel fruits which are produced on wood of two or more years' 

 growth, require to be pruned in a different manner from such fruits 

 as the peach, which is produced from the shoots of the preceding 

 year. 



To herbaceous plants pruning is applicable, not only when they are 

 being transplanted, when both roots and top are frequently cut in, 

 but also to fruit-bearing kinds, such as the melon tribe, the tomato, 

 &c. The topping of beans, and the picking off of potato blossoms, 

 are operations belonging to pruning ; as is the cutting off of withered 

 flowers for the sake of neatness, or to prevent the production of seed. 

 Having noticed the uses of pruning in culture, we shall next shortly 

 describe the different kinds in use in British gardens and plantations. 

 These may be included under close-pruning, shortening-in, fore- 

 shortening, spurring-in, heading-in, lopping, snag-lopping, lopping-in, 

 stopping, pinching cut, disbarking, disbudding, disleafing, slitting, 

 bruising or tearing, root pruning, girdling, and felling. 



Close pruning consists in cutting off shoots close to the branch or 

 stem from whence they spring, leaving as small a section as possible 

 in order that it may be speedily healed over. In performing the 

 operation care should be taken to make the wounded section no larger 

 than the base of the shoot, in order that it may be healed over as 

 quickly as possible ; and at the same time to make it no smaller, because 

 this would leave latent buds which would be liable to be developed, 

 and thus occasion the operation to be performed a second time. This 

 mode of pruning is only adopted where the object is to produce stems 

 or trunks clear of branches or of any kind of protuberance, as in the 

 case of standard trees in gardens, especially fruit trees, and in the 

 case of forest trees, grown for their timber. If the branch cut off is 

 under an inch in diameter, the wound will generally heal over in two 

 seasons, and in this case the timber sustains no practical injury ; but 

 if it is larger, it will probably begin to decay in the centre, and thus 

 occasion a blemish in the timber. Mr. Cree's mode of pruning forest 

 trees grown with a view to the production of straight timber, which 

 appears to us to be decidedly the best, is an application of this mode. 



