CHAPTER XXXIX 



THE PRUNING OF FRUIT TREES 



THE proper pruning of fruit trees, I am afraid, presents 

 more difficulties to the inexperienced amateur than almost 

 any other branch of the art of gardening. In all too many 

 cases he neglects it altogether. He allows his fruit trees to run 

 riot year after year, and he reaps smaller and less satisfactory 

 crops with each succeeding autumn. Truly he has his reward. 

 Trees may be planted with the utmost care and they may appear 

 to the undiscerning eye to be flourishing abundantly, but unless 

 attention be paid to pruning when the proper season arrives, the 

 growth will become merely rampant and the fruit will be hard to 

 find. 



A little study of the theory and practice of pruning will, how- 

 ever, soon convince the negligent gardener of his folly. Let him 

 get firmly fixed in his mind what are the objects which it is sought 

 to achieve by pruning, and he will assuredly never neglect his 

 fruit trees again. 



What, then, are the objects which are achieved by the pruning 

 of fruit trees ? Obviously, the chief aim is to secure the produc- 

 tion of a satisfactory crop of fruit each year. It is the natural 

 tendency of all fruit trees to revert to their original wild state, 

 and for their crops to deteriorate both in quality and in quantity 

 as yearly growth extends, unless the pruning knife be used at 

 regular intervals. 



But other useful purposes, all tending towards the production 

 of fruit, are also served by pruning. First comes the desire of 

 the cultivator that his trees shall be shapely and pleasing to the 

 eye, and he can only thus regulate their form and size by pruning. 

 Next he wishes to make the growth as far as possib-e uniform, 



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