The Garden. 89 



autumn or winter; for no sooner does the sap begin to flow in 

 spring, than fresh branches will arise from the strongest branch 

 buds below where the pruning was made, and the same quantity 

 of sap being furnished, the tree will very soon be as luxuriant as 

 before the operation. Frequently it will be more so, for the 

 pulp laid up in the roots the preceding autumn will be more apt 

 to cause new root fibres than in an unpruned tree. So true is 

 this, that weak old trees are often headed down, to render 

 them luxuriant; though the same gentleman will also exten- 

 sively top luxuriant trees in winter, with the hope (certain to be 

 frustrated,) of checking their growth. Summer pruning, how- 

 ever, has a different effect, and when young shoots and suckers 

 are thinned off in summer, they prevent a tree from exhausting 

 itself." 



2. TVinter pruning bears to the sun and winds at the worst 

 season of the year, and long before the heading process can 

 commence. The cut part either dries and checks, making a 

 lodgment for rains, and causes disease and death, or the sap ex- 

 udes from the wound, producing canker, and corroding the bark. 



3. Both of these evils are averted by summer pruning. New 

 sprouts are seldom thrown out, and the diminished flow of pulp 

 or elaborated sap is expended in healing the wounds, by cover- 

 ing them entirely, or their edges, with new wood; and in the 

 formation of buds. 



It should be borne in mind that light, heat and air are all ne- 

 cessary to develope the excellence of fruit. Without their co- 

 operation fruit neither attains its natural color, consistence or 

 flavor. Light is necessary to give substance, hardness and color. 

 Heat is indispensable to the active circulation of the sap and the 

 formation of sugar, or the principle of flavor. And air is ne- 

 cessary in modifying the sap, while undergoing the elaborating 

 process. Hence the utility of exposing fruit to the influence of 

 these agents, by thinning the wood upon fruit trees. In the 

 apple, especially, it is advisable to train its top in the form of an 

 inverted funnel, by cutting out the leading upright shoots as soon 

 as three or four arms or branches, at a proper height, are sufli- 

 ciently advanced to receive and elaborate the sap coming from 

 the roots. Upright wood does not produce fruit like that which 

 inclines, or grows nearly horizontal. So that taking out the 

 leading stem not only produces more but better fruit. As leaves 

 are as necessary to the formation of roots as roots are to the 

 formation of leaves, in pruning, one third of the stem should at 

 least be left untouched by the pruning knife. 



I am, dear sir, yours, &.c., 



J. BUEL. 



Albany, Jan. 24thy 1837. 



VOL. III. — NO. III. 12 



