256 AMEEICAN HOME GARDEN. 



to effect the end. The distance at. which the roots are cut 

 must be proportioned to the size of the tree, the object being 

 to cut off only so many of its feeders as temporarily to stint its 

 supply of sap. For a tree three inches in diameter, the cut 

 may be made at a distance of three or four feet from the stem, 

 and so on. August is a good time for the operation. 



Root pruning is sometimes also resorted to for the purpose 

 of restoring health to a tree that has become diseased from its 

 deeper* roots entering an unfavorable or poisonous subsoil. In 

 this case a large opening is made on one side, and a sharpen- 

 ed, spade driven with force under the whole central portion of 

 the tree, whence the deep roots usually proceed. It should 

 always be accompanied by high surface culture. 



CLEANING AND SCRAPING. 



At least once a year all bearing trees should be cleaned by 

 washing or scraping, or both, from all moss and dead bark ; 

 and whether this be done in fall or spring, every portion of the 

 scrapings should be gathered and burned, as well as all trim- 

 mings, of whatever kind, from trees infested by insects or dis- 

 eased. 



FRUITING. 



It is common to speak of the " rapid" or " slow circulation 

 of the sap," and of its " accumulation" and " more perfect elab- 

 oration," and the consequent formation of fruit-buds, as result- 

 ing from the retarded rate of its flow. I know of no such se- 

 ries of experiments upon the rate of vegetable circulation, with 

 its variations, as might enable us to approximate to a safe con- 

 clusion upon the subject, nor do I find any thing in nature that 

 might suggest or sustain the theory by analogy. It is also 

 difficult to understand how cutting off the supplies in root prun- 

 ing, or in any way retarding the flow of sap, should cause its 

 accumulation (if the language quoted be accurately used), or 

 how it happens that on mature trees with a habit of biennial 

 bearing the blossom-buds are always formed in the year of 

 their most free growth. They are also formed in the fall, at 

 which period, according to Boucherie, as quoted by J. F. W. 



