TO PROMOTE GROWTH. 31 



be broken off while young and brittle cutting is apt to increase 

 their number." 



Where pruning is not required to renovate the vigour of an 

 enfeebled tree, or to regulate its shape in other words, in the 

 case of a healthy tree which we wish to retain in a state of the 

 greatest luxuriance, health, and vigour, it may be considered 

 worse than useless. Bearing in mind that growth is always 

 corresponding to the action of the leaves and branches, if these 

 are in due proportion, and in perfect health, the knife will always 

 be found rather detrimental to luxuriance and constitutional 

 vigour than beneficial.* 



The lest season for pruning to promote growth, theoretically, is 

 in autumn soon after the fall of the leaf. Next to this, winter 

 pruning, performed in mild weather, is best, and in orchards this 

 is the season usually most convenient. In all parts of the coun- 

 try where the winters are not very severe, (and always in the 

 southern and western states,) the roots are collecting a certain 

 stock of nourishment during the whole autumn and winter. 

 When a tree is pruned in autumn or winter this whole supply 

 goes to the remaining branches, while in the case of spring pru- 

 ning it is partly lost. North of the 43 of latitude, however, the 

 winters are so severe that winter pruning should be deferred till 

 the last of February. 



We should especially avoid pruning at that period in spring 

 when the buds are swelling, and the sap is in full flow, as the 

 loss of sap by bleeding is very injurious to most trees, and, in 

 some, brings on a serious and incurable canker in the limbs. 



There are advantages and disadvantages attending all sea- 

 sons of pruning, but our own experience has led us to believe 

 that, practically, a fortnight before midsummer is by far the best 

 season, on the whole, for pruning in the northern and middle states. 

 Wounds made at this season heal over freely and rapidly ; it is 

 the most favourable time to judge of the shape and balance of 

 the head, and to see at a glance which branches require removal ; 

 and all the stock of organizable matter in the tree is directed to 

 the branches that remain. 



In pruning large limbs, some composition should always be at 

 hand to cover the wound. This will not only prevent its crack- 

 ing by the cold in winter pruning, but will keep out the air, and 

 maintain the exposed wood in a sound state, until it is covered 



* Ignorant cultivators frequently weaken the energies of young trees, ami 

 cause them to grow up with lean and slender stems, by injudiciously trimming off 

 the young side shoots and leaves, in the growing season. By taking off these shoots, 

 the stem is deprived of all the leaves which would attract and elaborate the sap, 

 thus preparing nourishment for the growth of the stem ; and the trunk of the tree 

 does not increase in size half so fast as when the side branches are allowed to re- 

 main for a time, pruning them away gradually. It is better, in the case of these 

 young trees, to stop the side branches when of moderate length by pinching out the 

 terminal bud. 



