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NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JULY 2, 1S34. 



From the Genesee -Farmer. 

 HINTS ON PRUNING. 



The principal objects of pinning, are to procure 

 fi good bole or trunk for timber; to form a head 

 for tbe protection of fruit; and to subserve the 

 purpose of ornament. 



To effect tliese objects with the least trouble 

 and greatest advantage, upon all non-resinous trees, 

 the following rubs are recommended: 



1. Begin to prune the tree when it is young. 



2. Cut close and smooth to the bole or limb. 



3. Cut, when small, tbe blanches which are 

 likely to interfere, or become useless, and which if 

 suffered to remain, will require to be removed at 

 a more advanced period of growth. 



4. Do not trim to excess. Let the branches oc- 

 cupy, at least a third of the entire height of a tree. 



5. Do not prune when the tree bleeds. Where 

 the preceding suggestions are observed, we may 

 add— 



6. Prune in the summer. 



I proceed to offer my reasons for the rules here 

 recommended, and 



First, The food required to nourish the lateral 

 useless branches, will go to increase the diameter 

 and height of the plant, or swell the fruit, if these 

 are judiciously removed. But a main considera- 

 tion is, that the excision of small branches causes 

 *only small wounds, and small wounds speedily 

 heal. The observation of this rule, therefore, fa- 

 cilitates growth, promotes health, and ultimately 

 saves labor. 



Secondly, This rule needs very little argument 

 to enforce its propriety, as every observer must 

 have frequently seen and lamented the ruinous 

 effects of an opposite practice. The snags either 

 send out useless spray ; or, deprived of the feeble 

 aid of tliese, they die and rot, and carry disease 

 into the bole, and are thus often the cause of the 

 premature loss of the tree. If cut close, the en- 

 largement of the living wood soon covers the 

 wound. In large branches where the saw must 

 be used, the healing process is greatly facilitated, 

 by pareing the cut, particularly the exterior edges, 

 with the pruning knife ; and it is a good precau- 

 tion, before you use the saw, to notch under the 

 intended cut, to prevent tearing the bark when the 

 limb falls. In extirpating sprouts from the roots, 

 and neither they nor those growing from the bole 

 should be suffered long to remain, the like pre- 

 caution of cutting close should be observed ; for 

 which purpose it is necessary first to remove the 

 earth from about the collar, with the spade or 

 other instrument. 



Thirdly, The reasons for pruning a tree while 

 young, apply here : It is easier to cut small than 

 large limbs, and the wounds of the former soon 

 heal. But the question presents, what limbs are 

 to be cut ? Generally all that are likely to cross 

 each other, all feeble spray, the strongest on the 

 bole, and the weakest in the top ; for while the 

 trees are in nursery, I think it serviceable to leave 

 a few scattering laterals upon the bole, and it is 

 beneficial, at all ages, to thin most kinds in the 

 top. Yet the answer to the inquiry will depend 

 principally upon the species of tree, and the de- 

 sign of the planter. If his object be timber, the 

 leading shoot should be feathered up in a spiral 

 form, and all other shoots likely to interfere with 

 its growth be cut away. If the object be fruit, 

 beauty and utility are to be consulted, and tliese 

 are seldom incompatible in the eyes of a fruit 

 grower, for with him productiveness constitutes 



beauty. If ornament be the main consideration, 

 no special directions can be given, as the species 

 employed, the location, and the taste and fancy of 

 tbe planter, will have a controlling influence. The 

 rule for timber trees will not apply to either those 

 destined for fruit or ornament. 



In orchard and garden fruit, generally, the en- 

 deavor should be to obtain a low and spreading 

 top. When a clean bole is obtained to a sufficient 

 height, say, in the orchard, of seven or eight feet, 

 and in the garden, according to fancy, the leading 

 shoot should be cut in, and three or four more 

 branches left to form the head ; which, when the 

 habit of the tree will permit it, should be primed 

 so as to give it a besom form, or that of a broom 

 divested of its centre. Several advantages arise 

 from this and a more extended form. It admits 

 the air more freely, to mature the fruit and wood ; 

 it renders the trees less liable to be blown down ; 

 it facilitates the gathering of the fruit, and the 

 pruning of the tree. But its principal advantage 

 consists in its tendency to increase oviparous or 

 fruit buds, and consequently to augment the fruit. 

 A great growth of wood seems to be incompatible 

 with a great crop of fruit, and vice versa. A cow 

 that gives much milk seldom takes on much flesh 

 during the milking season. If the secreted food 

 is converted into milk and fruit, there can be but 

 little reasonable hope of its adding to the flesh of 

 the animal, or the wood of the vegetable. Erect 

 branches produce most wood buds. Straight 

 limbs produce less fruit than those that are curved 

 or crooked. Whatever retards or diminishes the 

 flow of elaborated sap, in a healthy tree, is favor- 

 able to the production of fruit. Hence wall trees, 

 whose limbs are trained in the form of a fan, or 

 in a horizontal direction, bear better fruit than 

 those that grow upright as standards. Hence 

 young trees are more apt to show blossoms the 

 first and second year after transplanting, than in 

 the two subsequent years. Pomologists have en- 

 deavored to render this law in vegetation subser- 

 vient to their interests, by adopting artificial means 

 for producing the production of fruit buds. These 

 means consist in ring-barking, transplanting, cut- 

 ting the roots, training, pruning, &c. The pears 

 in the Caledonian horticultural garden are trained 

 en quenouille, that is, the lateral branches are cut 

 in to a short distance of the main stem, and kept 

 so, and the fruit is produced on the spurs growing 

 from tliese short branches. In the horticultural 

 garden of London, the limbs of the pear are tied 

 down in a drooping position, resembling some- 

 what in appearance the weeping willow. The 

 vines cultivated at Thomery, celebrated for their 

 superior fruit, are planted IS inches apart, trained 

 in the form of a T, the top horizontally, and re- 

 stricted in their growth to four feet from the main 

 stem. In this way a treillance of eight feet long, 

 and eight feet high, is sufficient for five vines, 

 which produce upon an average 320 bunches of 

 fruit. These modes of training have a common 

 object, that of restricting the growth of wood, and 

 producing an increase of fruit. Those who wish 

 to examine the modes of training here spoken of, 

 in detail, are referred to Loudon's Gardener's Mag- 

 azine. 



Fourthly, Leaves are as necessary in the econ- 

 omy of vegetation as roots. The sap must be 

 elaborated in these before it can be transmuted 

 into wood, bark or fruit. A tree cannot thrive 

 therefore, when these organs are deficient or dis- 

 eased. If sufficient leaves or branches to produce 



them; are not left to concoct or digest the sap 

 which is propelled from the roots, the tree, to use 

 a modern term, but a just comparison, becomes 

 dyspeptic ; the vegetable blood is vitiated, tho 

 wood loses its texture, and a stunted growtli or 

 premature death generally ensues. Hence great 

 precautions should be used against excessive prun- 

 ing. _ 



Fifthly, To prune when the tree bleeds tends to 

 debilitate, by wasting what is designed as food for 

 the tree. I have known it fatal to the \jiie. 

 What is called bleeding is the flowing of tbe sap 

 from wounds, before it has been converted into al- 

 iment. This sap flows most freely while the buds 

 are swelling, and until the leaves are fully capa- 

 ble of discharging their office, as is strongly in- 

 stanced in the maple, birch, &c. Our orchards 

 are generally pruned in March, which is probably 

 the most unfavorable month in the year for this 

 operation. 



Sixthly, The advantages of summer pruning are 

 that the tree being then in vigorous growth, the 

 wounds heal speedily ; and the sap being concoct- 

 ed and thick, does not flow from the, wounds, and 

 thereby impair the health of the plant. Summer 

 pruning should not be performed, however, before 

 July, when the new growth has considerably ad- 

 vanced. It may be well to add, as this suggestion 

 may seem unsound, that summer pruning is re- 

 commended by the best authorities. " As a gen- 

 eral rule" says Pontney " summer is preferable to 

 winter pruning :" and Sang suspends pruning, 

 " from the beginning of February, to the middle 

 of July - , but carries it on during every other 

 month of the year." 



In regard to evergreens, which with us are con- 

 fined principally to resinous trees, it is the gener- 

 al practice of nurserymen, and I think it a judi- 

 cious one, not to prune them until they have ac- 

 quired some years growth, and then hut sparingly 

 and at long intervals, displacing two or three tiers 

 of the lower branches, every two or three years. 

 Alonieith says, " never cut off a branch until it has 

 begun to rot, as the bleeding of a live branch will 

 go far to kill the tree." 



The implements employed in pruning, and the 

 manner of using them, are matters of moment. 

 If the operation is commenced when the tree is 

 young, and judiciously followed up, a good knife, 

 a small saw, and a chisel fixed on a six foot ban- 

 die, to trim the tops and extremities of the branch- 

 es, are all the tools that are required. A large 

 saw will be occasionally wanted ; hut an axe or 

 hatchet should never be employed, as they frac- 

 ture the wood, bruise and tear the bark, and dis- 

 figure the tree. J. Buel. 



Albany, December, 1830. 



From the Genesee Farmer. 

 DIFFERENT BREEDS OF SWINE. 



Until lately I had little idea that so great a 

 difference existed in the breed oC swine. Last 

 fall when in Albany, I bought of Mr. Bement two 

 beautiful China spotted hogs. The female was in 

 pig to a fine white English hoar, sent to Mr. B. by 

 Doctor Ilosack ; and although young, she produced 

 a line litter of eight pigs, the finest in shape and 

 proportion that I ever saw. The male pigs I gave 

 away to my agricultural friends in different parts 

 of the country, and the females with their mother, 

 and the China boar I sent this spring to my farm 

 on Grand Island. They have eaten there scarcely 

 anything but grass, aud yet all keep too fat for 



