Hints on Pruning. 439 



am of opinion, that this winter-pruning cure is worse than 

 all the other evils put together. I am happy to see that some 

 able horticulturists are now raising their voice against this 

 unpractical barbarism, a practice as unnatural as it is un- 

 profitable. It is like setting the trees on stilts, under the ill- 

 judged pretext of cropping the ground beneath them. If a 

 tree is worth root-room in the ground, it is worth head-room 

 in the air ; and if it is not worth both these, it is worth noth- 

 ing at all, except for ornament; and, if it is not wanted for 

 ornament, it should be cut down. But a fruit tree may be 

 both useful and ornamental, and abundantly pay for the gar- 

 den room that it occupies ; and those who have little garden 

 room to spare for fruit trees, should try the system of growing 

 small pyramidal or conical trees, clothed with branches, from 

 the ground upwards. It is very easy, during summer, to 

 stop the wood-making propensities of a tree, by depriving it 

 of the power of drawing excessively upon the roots for moist- 

 ure, and the roots, in like manner, may be placed into a po- 

 sition to imbibe healthful secretion for its nourishment. 



Notwithstanding all the volumes that have been written 

 on the motion and circulation of vegetable fluids, we are still 

 in the dark as to the proper time, season, or period of the 

 year for cutting the roots or branches of a tree. We may 

 reason ourselves, individually, into the supposition of one pe- 

 riod being better than another, — but where is the proof 7 Ex- 

 perience has taught us, that autumn is the best time for what 

 is called winter pruning, immediately on the fall of the 

 leaves, or when they can be shaken from the tree; but even 

 then the sap is sensibly in motion. Still, we know that 

 spring pruning is bad ; that pruning in mid winter is little 

 better ; and where severe pruning must be done, that autumn 

 pruning is the best of all, both for roots and branches, and 

 this, too, is the slackest time of the whole workable season, 

 yet, not in one case out of ten, is it taken the advantage of to 

 get the pruning work accomplished. Will some of our exten- 

 sive horticulturists direct their attention to this matter, and 

 give us the benefit of their experience. 



New Haven, Cojin., Sept. 1849. 



We must commend this excellent article to the attention of 

 all cultivators. — Ed. 



