12 



which will prevent the air and moistore from pene- 

 trating, and as the juices are then in an active state, 

 little or no injury may be apprehended. If this were 

 practised more generally than it has been, we should 

 not witness so much of premature decay that is seen 

 so extensively in our orchards and gardens. 



I am unwilling to dismiss this subject without urging 

 upon you the necessity of avoiding as much as possible, 

 the removal of large and vigorous branches from your 

 trees at any season. To secure success in the cultiva- 

 tion of fruit trees, and to give them a tasteful and orna- 

 mental, as well as useful form, with a view to produc- 

 tiveness, and a simultaneous ripening of their fruits, 

 pruning should be commenced the year after they are 

 transplanted, and repeated every successive spring, 

 by cutting out from the centre, and from the exterior 

 all the small, and superfluous, and intersecting shoots, 

 wherever they appear, leaving the interior of the tree 

 in the form of a tunnel. By this method the fruit, on 

 all parts of the tree, will be equally accessible to the 

 influence of the sun, and will consequently be more 

 equally matured, and of similar qualities on all its 

 sections. Trees, like children, should be taught cor- 

 rect habits v^hile they are susceptible of good impres- 

 sions, and as v/e are directed to train up the latter in 

 the way they should go, that in maturer life they shall 

 not depart from the precepts that are instilled into 

 their minds in youth, so is it desirable in relation to 

 the former, that we should cultivate the young plant 

 with reference to the future tree, and prune and train 

 it as we would have it to ^row. 



