CHAPTER III. 



The Pruning and Training of Fruit 

 Trees. 



" When piercing cold had burst the brittle stone, 



He then would prune the tender'st of his trees." 



From Addison's translation oj 

 Virgil's Fourth " Georgia." 



pruning of fruit trees is a bugbear to 

 amateurs, and I have known professional 

 gardeners who were somewhat shaky on this 

 particular point. As a matter of fact any one 

 with the average amount of common sense 

 can learn the principles, but the actual practice, 

 however, is not acquired so easily, and years of 

 patient work must be put in before any degree of 

 skill is attained. The objects of pruning are briefly 

 as follows : 



1. To admit light and air to all parts of the tree. 



2. To encourage the formation of fruit buds. 



3. To train and shape the tree so that the branches 

 do not cross and rub against each other. 



4. (When dealing with dwarf trees) to keep the 

 tree within reasonable limits so that fruit-thinning, 

 fruit picking, pruning and spraying may be easily 

 performed without the aid of a ladder. 



Properly pruned trees produce finer fruit than 

 unpruned trees, and more fruit also if the space 

 occupied is taken into account. Unpruned trees 

 produce fruit as a rule only at the extreme ends of 

 the branches, and when there is any fruit near the 



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