PRUNING. 271 



less difficult to manage, and less expensive. Some 

 trees are called Balloons, from their branches being 

 trained in a peculiar shape, by means of strings and 

 a hoop, until they present a balloon-shaped head. 

 These trees present a beautiful appearance when in 

 flower ; but the mode of training causes their buds to 

 be so much exposed to the influence of frost, that they 

 often suffer more than other apple-trees. 



The pruning of young apple-trees is very beneficial 

 to them, when performed in a skilful and judicious 

 manner ; but when the trees grow old, the less they are 

 pruned the better. The lopping of large branches is 

 generally very injurious to the tree; it exposes the sap- 

 wood to the atmosphere, and produces canker and decay. 

 The first object in pruning is to remove superfluous and 

 too luxuriant shoots, and this cannot be better done 

 than in the youth of the tree. By this means light and 

 air are admitted to all parts of the tree, and a crowded 

 growth is prevented ; but even those shoots which are 

 allowed to remain will require checking in their ex- 

 uberant growth, for the shoots which terminate each 

 branch are unfruitful, and it is only the side shoots 

 that are fertile, and these only when they are stunted 

 in their growth, and form what are technically called 

 spurs. By shortening back the leading shoots every year 

 to a greater or less degree, according to their strength, 

 the sap is checked, and forced into the side buds, which 

 soon begin to form branches, some of which are sure 

 to be fruit-bearing ones, for their growth will again be 

 seasonably checked by the lengthening of the principal 

 branch, which will now send forth new buds near the 

 extremity, and will again grow rapidly as before. The 

 fruit-spurs, as well as the leading branches, when they 

 show a disposition to lengthen, should have that ten- 

 dency stopped by pruning. 



The trees of an orchard, especially apple-trees, are 

 liable to injury, not only from frosts and storms, but 

 from blight and parasitical plants ; and before we 



