CHAPTER IX. 

 THE PRUNING OF PLANTS. 



The pruning of plants is an important as well as an 

 interesting operation. It requires knowledge, experience 

 and judgment. Pruning produces a tree that is symmetrical 

 in shape. Plants properly pruned will bear better fruit, 

 because the plant food is used in fewer branches and therefore 

 the plant can grow better fruit. 



Plants of different kinds must be pruned differently. 

 Likewise young plants must be pruned in a different manner 

 than old and mature plants. Young trees one year old are 

 primed differently than five-year-old or twenty-year-old trees. 

 Vines are pruned unlike the bush fruits, and the brambles, 

 such as blackberries and the raspberries, are pruned differ- 

 ently than the peach or the pear tree. So then after analyzing 

 pruning in a brief way we are led to assume that all plants 

 must be pruned in a manner determined by the plant, and 

 also that the methods must be varied as the plant grows 

 older. 



Principles of Pruning. — There are certain principles in 

 the pruning of any plant that are identical, because prun- 

 ing is simply an operation on the plant. It consists of 

 removing a certain amount or a part of the plant body. The 

 nature of animal life is to heal any cut or wound on its body, 

 and it is also the nature of a plant to heal any wound made 

 on it. However, a wound made by removing a limb on a 

 plant is different than the cutting off of a piece of the bark 

 on the trunk which might be similar to an animal wound. 

 Consequently a few principles in removing a branch must be 

 observed. All wounds on a plant are healed by the cell sap 

 carrying food to the wounded part. If this wounded part is 

 in the line of the sap movement the wound is readily healed, 



