]NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



PUBLISHED 13Y JOHN B. RUSSELL, UOGEllS' RUIF^DING.S, CONGllESS S'lRKET, liOHTON.— 1"II0MAH G. FF.SSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOL. III. 



FHIDAY, FEBRUARY in, 182.5. 



No. ?,o. 



©n'Qinnl Commuutcatfonft". 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ENGI.ASD FABHBR. 



PRUNING TREES. 

 Aorfolk Countij, Feb. 11, 1825. 

 Mr FnsFXNDCN' — In your pajior of this day, I 

 oUerve ;in nrticle on the liist pnjc reliiling to 

 the '■• Priming of Fruit Trccs.^'' Tlic smllior be- 

 n-ins l>v saying- that he hilieves it iiijiirious to 

 Trim them much at any season. U sooms that 

 ten years 02^0 yonrcorrpsponileiit bnnt;hl a farm 

 witii a larije and thrifty orchard, and, thinking to 

 iVnprove it, he hogan uith ivliat he calls '■^avcr;/ 

 (ihundunt trimmiii:^," whirl) he lind'=, after ten 

 vears' oliservation, was injurious to his trees, as 

 his neighlioiir iiad [irf^dicted it noukl be. Hence 

 the writer deems it iinprofier to (irnne, excej"! 

 where branches interfere, &i;. He then g»es on 

 (o say — " but if you trim, lei it be in Marth or 

 April, asjreeable to imincmnrial cuj.'o.vi." 'Ihe 

 author infers that trimming or pruninff trete in 

 summer injures them, snd instances S'uue oakithe 

 the lower limbs of which were cut olf in JJme, 

 which he thinks produces a predisposition in 

 vol, — as he says cutting ofl' the limbs slops the 

 ascent of the saji, and makes it lie stngnajt in 



I perfectly right as to tiio inexpediency of rank' 

 j pruning. This, at any season, is bad, bvit more i 

 especially in cold weather. ' In frosty weather 

 jit opens so many more wounds to tiie inclem- 

 ency of the season, besides the other evils at- 

 tending it when performed even in May. The i 

 head of a tree is proportioned to tlie strength ! 

 and vigour of its roots, and these are vigorous 1 

 in proportion to the finality of the soil from ; 

 which they are foil. Some soils will furnish , 

 abundance of nutriment to a pear tree, while | 

 they will supply an apple tree with leeble nour- ] 

 ishnicnt ; and. difierent sorts of pears acquire 

 different degrees of nourishment from the same 

 soil. This prfociplfe is well understood by 

 sfiienliiic farffliers, and leads to a rotation of 

 crops, &c. 



If a tree, therefore, be placed in n soil which 

 is congenial to its growth, it will soon shovvJ Ihe 

 fact in the sirenglli and vigour of its branches; 

 its roots will furnish a certain quantity of sap, 

 which may be dispersed into three, six, or twen- 

 ty branches; if the greater number be allowed 

 to grow and increase liy their laterals, they will 

 be propotionabFy feeble ; if a portion of them 

 he suppressed, the remaining ones, receiving all 

 the sap that is furnished ihro.igh the root--, will 

 grow proportionably stronger; if so many bo 



the body of the tree, fcc. and causes rot. 



I nra'no l-arnier, S;r,-and therefore cann[t be|Cul out that the residue will not consume or 

 supposed to know so much on this subject itilieitake up all the sap furnished, it will be thrown 

 author of the piece on "Pruning Fruit Ttees" : hack on the large branches and body of Ihe 



docs; but I own sot.ie trees, and occasi<i<il'y tree, and fiNe branches or suckers will be 



attend to their cultivation. From his (dwrva- ihrown out at the most tender issues. The 



lions 1 am led to think that the writer has not 

 expressed himself with sufliciont clearness on 

 the subject, or that he has not attended much 

 to the physiology of plants. 1 am induced to 

 make these remarks, because 1 have long seen 

 with regret the errours which farmers in gen- 

 eral run into in their system of pruning, and es- 

 pecially in the season generally adopted in this 

 uc;'<hbourhood for this operation. 



The writer has not, to bo sure, begun his op- 

 erations in February, as many do — but recoin- 

 menils March and April. 1 apprehend that dif- 

 ferent sorts of trees require to be pruned at dif- 

 ferent seasons of the year. Pear stocks will 

 better bear pruning in February, than apple 

 stocks will in March, because the wood of the 

 latter is much more susceptible to the efiecisof 

 wet and frost than the former; the juices of the 

 apple tree are more acrid, and are much more 

 easily brought into a state of fermentation than 

 those of the pear tree ; — hence arises the more 

 rapid decay of Ihe apple tree when exfiosed to 

 moisture and frost. But if the object he to pre- 

 serve your trees, they should never be pruned, 

 in this climate, before April, and it would be 

 still better never to prune them till May. An 

 apple tree pruned in the early part or even Ihe 

 middle of May, will cover its wound, if it he 

 not too large, without injury to the tree, the 

 first season ; whereas, if pruned in Mirch, Ihe 

 wood will have been frosted, and incipient de- 

 cay will have taken place before the wound is 

 protected by the mild season, unless it be cover- 

 ed with some kind of compo't to keep out the 

 water. The writer on this subje.-^t is, I think, 



consequences are, in the first place, confusion 

 in the dls])osition of the branches; — and in the 

 second place, yon retard the fructiticalion nl 

 ib.e Iree. The object, therefore, of the pruner 

 should he to leaveiRs many natural or IVuil 

 bearing branches, in their proper positions, as 

 the roots ran nourish abundantly, without over- 

 charging them ; by «hich means you get a 

 plentiful supply of good handsome fruit ; you 

 keep your trees in good heallh ; the wounds 

 made in prunin'r are easily healed ; and in place 

 of a " slovenly" orchard, your trees will al- 

 ways present a handsome and neat appearance. 

 The idea of the author on "Pruning Fruit 

 Trees," that by leaving more limb« than the 

 roots can nourish, is .a benelicial practice, inas- 

 much as the superfluous ones will die, and be- 

 come hard, and thereby preserve the tree from 

 decay, is, I confess, a novel one. A dead limb 

 is a decayed limb, and unless removed at once 

 close to the body of the tree or branch from 

 whence it proceed"!, will communicate its dis 

 ease to the mother branch from whence it 

 springs. This idea is so far from being correct, 

 that pruning should always be made on sound 

 and healthy wood, and close to the body ol 

 the branch from whence it proceeds that is to 

 be cut olf. In this case the wound heals by the 

 return of the sap, but in the other cn«e it can 

 never heal, as there is no vital principle in the 

 part wounded. The reason why most trees 

 should not be pruned after Ihe middle of May is, 

 (as you very properly stale in your note to this 

 article) because the hark is then subject to peal 

 off, not that it docs not heal as quick asjf pruned 



earlier. The contrary of this is the fact as any 

 one may see who chooses to make the experi- 

 iment. Let him take a slice of bark dowri to 

 the alburnum, [sap-wood] from the stock or 

 stem of four apple trees of equal vigour; — one 

 the middle of March — one in April — one in 

 May — and one in the middle of .lune. If tlio cuts 

 are of equal size, the one cut in .June will be 

 covered lirst with the new alburnum. The cut 

 must not run into the alburnum of the preced- 

 ing year in neither case ; and to liy the exper- 

 iment fairly the cut oiight to be 4 to 5 inches 

 long, and 2 to 3 inches wide, and made vrith 

 a sharp instrument. 



Your correspondent says tiie lower limbs of 

 his oaks were cut off in June, which he conceives 

 stopped the ascent of the sap when it was flowing 

 in the greatest abundance, and Ihereliy left it 

 stagnant in the body of the tree in the hottest 

 season of the year, and caused the rot. By this 

 we are to su|i|)ose that the upper branches were 

 left on t!ie trees. If that were the tact, I do not 

 understand how ihe ascent of the sap was stop- 

 ped, unless there were so many limbs suppressed 

 that the remaining few could not take up the 

 sap furnished by the roots. The upright or 

 vertical brauches of a tree take a greater por- 

 tion of the sap than the lateral or horizontal 

 branches do, and, generally speaking, the up- 

 per branches arc Ihe most vertical. So far, 

 therefore, from slopping the assent of the sap, 

 liy caititig off Ihe ii>vier, and leaving Ihe upper 

 l>ranche/, ! should say that this act would accel- 

 leralc the ascent, as there are no longer any lat- 

 eral branches tn.div ert it from its natural course. 

 If you bead a tree down, you check the upward 

 course of the sap, until it linds vent through the 

 tender liark which remains on the body or stem 

 of the tree, and forms new boughs or shoots ; 

 but you do not prevent tlie ascent of the sap by 

 lakin:: away the lower branches, and leaving the 

 upper dry. It is true that if you cut off all the 

 branches from a vigorous apjjle tree, in the 

 spring of the year the sap is returned back on 

 the stock in such quantities that before it caa 

 issue and term new branches so as to consume 

 it, Ihe bark of the tree is forced olT and decays 

 owing to the fermenlalion which takes place, or 

 porhajis from the too rapid formation of the new 

 alburnum. 



As I have already extended this article muck 

 I'eyond what I had intended to do, 1 shall not 

 notice the seasons or the manner n hich I esteem 

 most suitable for prunmg. Trees, which beat 

 the stone fruits, as these trees are subject to 

 gum, require a different treatment. 



1 must now, Sir, ask your jlardor^ for calling 

 on your patience and indulgence, while you read 

 this long and tedious notice of your correspon- 

 dent's remarks on the " Pruning of FruitTrees;" 

 but 1 consider it important that a work like 

 yours, which contains so many excellent remarks 

 and useful hints on the subject «f agriculture, 

 should not propagate erroneous notirns, when 

 it is intended to |prnmo1e correct views of this 

 most important science, as well as that of its 

 twin sister— HORTICULTURE. 



