PRUNING. 89 



keep steadily in view during the operation, is, 1. To avoid 

 cutting off large limbs except-in cases of absolute necessity. 

 2. To admit light equally into all parts of the tree by thin- 

 ning out the branches. 3. To remove all crooked or badly 

 growing limbs, and preserve a handsome evenly distributed 

 top. 4. To do the work gradually, or in successive years, 

 and commencing by preference at the top or centre, which 

 will favor an open top. 5. To give a coating on all fresh 

 wounds an inch or more in diameter, of the composition 

 made of shellac dissolved in alcohol, just thick enough to 

 be of the consistence of paint. It .is applied with great ease 

 and rapidity, adheres firmly, keeps out the air, and not being 

 a heavy application, but only a thin coating, it offers no 

 impediment to the forming-lip of the new growth as it 

 closes over the wound. A bottle of this composition at all 

 times at hand, would be found a great convenience. A 

 shilling's worth of gum-shellac dissolved in a quart of al- 

 cohol, is all that is necessary, and is immediately ready for 

 use. If too thick, it is at once rendered more liquid by the 

 addition of alcohol, and vice versa. The most convenient 

 way to use it, so that it may be instantly ready at all times, 

 is to fit into the cork of a large-mouthed bottle, a brush of 

 convenient size, the cork thus forming a sort of handle to 

 the brush, which remains within the bottle when not in 

 use. 



The season for pruning old orchards is late in autumn or 

 in winter, or at mid-summer ; but not in spring when the 

 flow of sap is apt to injure and cause the decay of the wood 

 at the wounds. 



Pyramids. For pyramids, (a form of training applied 

 most frequently to dwarf pears,) the early treatment is quite 

 different from that of standards. As the sap tends to the 

 summit of the tree, producing the strongest side-shoots to- 

 wards the top, and the shortest and most feeble towards the 

 bottom, the natural form of the tree gradually becomes a 

 trunk or stem with a branching head. To prevent this 

 result, and give a strong broad set of branches at the bottom, 

 a thorough and regular system of shortening-down must be 

 adopted at the outset. The following is a brief outline of 

 the course usually pursued. 



