128 THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



time to prune a tree is when it is at rest" is exactly the 

 opposite of the truth, the best time to prune being when the 

 sap is in motion. 



As pointed out all along, there is a close analogy between 

 man and trees in the matter of diseases, and the same is 

 equally true as to their physical growth and development. 

 They both have alternate periods of activity and rest, the lat- 

 ter following as an apparent necessity from the former. 

 Man's rest is the half or a portion of every day, and to wake 

 him up every night at eleven or twelve o'clock and repeat it 

 several times before day, on the score of hygiene, would be 

 considered queer treatment. A tree's rest is the half or a 

 portion of every year, and that is the very treatment we adopt 

 for our trees. No sooner have the leaves fallen and the trees 

 settled themselves for a comfortable winter's rest, than many 

 owners, having leisure at that time, and to save work in 

 spring, come along with their manure, perhaps, or else plow 

 the ground, thus making soluble plant food that would have 

 lain dormant until spring. However dormant trees may 

 appear, if with our variable climate a prolonged warm spell 

 occurs, and particularly if the owner prunes considerably at: 

 this same time of leisure, the equilibrium between the tops- 

 and roots being destroyed, there must be more or less motion 

 of the sap to repair the damage. This plowing, pruning and 

 cultivating during the winter and early spring are our methods- 

 of breaking the rest of our trees, and so effectual are they that 

 the blooms and leaves often start long before they would had 

 the trees been let alone. But there is a condition, in this va- 

 riable climate of ours, that greatly increases the danger of this 

 winter movement of the sap, and that is a prolonged drouth 

 the preceding spring and summer, which is the almost infal- 

 lible condition precedent of blight the next year, if followed 

 by a late winter or early spring freeze. 



Remember, now, that rest in trees can be produced by ex- 

 cessive heat and drouth, as well as excessive cold, for I have 

 seen orange trees curl and shed their leaves under such con- 

 ditions in July, and become more dormant than usual in 

 midwinter here. If pear trees are forced to rest in summer 



