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CHAPTER IV. 



BENEFITS OF PRUNING. 



HAVING thus shown why pruning should be done, and 

 how the various branches of it are performed, it may 

 appear quite superfluous to say anything more on the 

 subject. Nor would it be at all necessary, but for the 

 simple reason that the various practices of pruning 

 have been in operation for so many years, that every 

 one has his own theory, system, and programme made 

 out whereby to proceed. It is therefore necessary to 

 show not only what is right and proper, good and 

 commendable, in regard to it, but also what is wrong, 

 hurtful, improper, and dangerous in the practice. We 

 have therefore, in point of fact, to destroy one pro- 

 gramme and construct another. 



Pruning has gained for itself a history, and that 

 history requires to be reviewed, and the lessons it has 

 taught us put on record for our example or warning, 

 that we may see what of truth and what of error it 

 contains, how much or how little is to be retained or 

 discarded. It is also desirable to show how much of 

 what has been learned should be unlearned, and what 

 has been done should be undone. Experience how- 

 ever teaches us, in regard to things in general, that it 

 is much harder and difficult to unlearn than it is to 



