FOREST AND FRUIT TREE CULTURE. 31 



Many trees are pruned too severely, even by practical men, while 

 others are left almost in a state of nature by the inexperienced. 



In regard to the time of pruning there is a great diversity of 

 opinion even among experienced men, the time recommended 

 ranging from midwinter to midsummer, some implying that doing 

 the work well is of more importance than the time of doing. When 

 trees are pruned in winter in a northern climate the bark will 

 sometimes crack open and make a bad wound, which will not heal 

 properly. I prefer to do such work any time from the first of 

 April to the first of June ; the sap is then flowing ; the alburnum 

 forms a callosity, and the healing process commences at once. 

 The next best time is when the autumn growth is rapid and 

 vigorous. 



The same diversity exists with regard to root-pruning as to prun- 

 ing the branches ; one contends that it is the means of weakening 

 the tree ; another that root-pruning has been successfully prac- 

 ticed for throwing fruit trees into a bearing state, and also as a 

 preventive of fire blight. I have seen it adopted when fruit trees 

 were growing with excessive vigor, for the purpose of checking 

 their growth, and with good eff'ect, as they would soon after begin 

 to show fruit buds. Dwarf pear trees are generally recommended 

 to be planted deep enough to cover the junction between the stock 

 and the scion two or three inches, so that, if roots should be 

 formed from the scion, some sorts may be preserved that would 

 otherwise be lost by failure on the quince ; reliance can be placed 

 on root-pruning to keep them in proper order. Detailed directions 

 for root-pruning may be found in Rivers' " Miniature Fruit Garden." 



Shade trees are often as barbarously used as fruit trees, and in 

 man}' cases more so when inexperienced men are sent to prune 

 the trees on the sides of the streets in our cities and towns. I 

 knew a gentleman who had a fine English elm which he had 

 planted himself; it was about thirty feet high and well furnished, 

 and both shaded and sheltered the west side of his house. It was 

 on a very wide street with a broad sidewalk, not interfering with 

 the accommodation of the public in any way whatever. I recol- 

 lect the sorrow and regret depicted on his countenance one day 

 when he went home and found that all that was left of Lis fine tree 

 was a tall, naked stem, standing like a flagstaff' with a small bunch 

 on the top of it like a broom ; being on the side of one of the public 

 streets it had to be rooted up. 



