No. 9. 



On Pruning Fruit Trees. 



277 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 On Pruning Fruit Trees. 



Mr. Editor, — This is a subject which 

 merits our deep regard : to the net^dect of 

 tliis necessary operation might be attributed 

 many of the evils which infest our orchards 

 in the shape of canker, blight, and rotten- 

 ness, proving in the end the destruction of 

 thousands of our finest trees. I have lately 

 made some extracts from a foreign work, 

 which appear to contain much valuable in- 

 struction and many new ideas on this very 

 important branch of rural affairs, and by 

 giving them a place in the Cabinet I think 

 you would be serving a valuable cause. 



" Some persons prune off all the fibres of 

 the main roots of the trees before planting, 

 supposing that they must perish and become 

 mouldy ; but this pruning is, to say the least, 

 entirely useless ; but if any large roots are 

 bruised or lacerated, the injured parts must 

 be removed, as they are too large to heal, 

 although they might not wholly decay. 



To secure the proper direction of the 

 roots, every tree must be deprived of tliose 

 which tap, leaving those only which extend 

 nearly at right angles with the stem, the 

 object being, to induce the roots to strike in 

 a horizontal direction not more than six or 

 eight inches below the surface of the earth; 

 but the heading down of the trees before 

 planting, with a view to give them figure in 

 the first instance, is oflen carried loo far by 

 those who consider that by cutting them 

 very low, they give strength to the tree : it 

 is requisite, however — should the wish be 

 to form an orchard of half-standard trees, 

 which is strongly recommended in prefer- 

 ence to those of very lotly growth — that a 

 certain number of primary branches be found 

 at a short distance from the ground, and they 

 must therefore he procured by pruning. Sup- 

 pose then, that only one erect shoot, about a 

 yard in length, be produced from the graft ; 

 then it will be necessary to cut it back to 

 the length of six inches above its origin, by 

 which means three or four of the eyes re- 

 maining will be excited to send forth as 

 many shoots ; these might afterwards be 

 sijortened at discretion, according to their 

 strength — the weaker to be cut closer than 

 the stronger — and thus a true balance will 

 be given to the members of the tree. Gar- 

 deners diflfer with respect to the proper sea- 

 son of heading down, some insisting that 

 they ought not to undergo the operation until 

 after they have passed over one entire year 

 after the planting; but after trying every 

 method, the best appears to be, if a strong 

 young tree be planted just before the leaves 

 fall or have quite changed colour, it ought 

 not to be pruned during that autumn or win- 



ter, but in the following spring ; just when 

 the buds begin to swell, it may be cut back 

 with safety and more certainly than at any 

 season of the second year, and for this rea- 

 son : if the pruning be performed at the 

 time of plantmg, say October, the wounds 

 remain exposed unhealed, to the fickleness 

 and severity of the winter; but if the tree, 

 at the commencement of the following April, 

 be sufficiently vigorous to enlarge its buds, 

 it will be equally so, to cfii^ct the develope- 

 ment of three or four of its lowest eyes, and 

 thus to produce as many branches, at a sea- 

 son when the vital fluids of the glandular 

 coat of the bark will produce healthy granu- 

 lations over t!ie wounded surfaces: but were 

 the shoot or shoots letl wholly unpruned, 

 the leading buds alone might advance and 

 leave a great length of wood of two different 

 years' growths to be cut back to the proper 

 distance above the graft. 



The object of pruning young trees is to 

 produce a tree with a regular, open head, 

 with radiating branches, as nearly as the 

 habits of the tree will permit, from a central 

 stem, obliquely ascending to a certain angle. 

 Lindley's observations on the regularity of a 

 well-pruned tree, are practically correct ; he 

 says, if this be effected at first, there will be 

 no difficulty in keeping it so afterwards; but 

 particular care must be taken in pruning, 

 to cut to that bud immediately on the inside 

 next to the centre of the tree, or to that im- 

 mediately on the outside; by these means, 

 on viewing the tree from the outside, the 

 branches will appear in a perpendicular line 

 from the eye ; whereas, if pruned to a bud 

 on the right or left side of the branch, the 

 young shoot will be produced in that direc- 

 tion, and every branch will appear crooked, 

 the regularity and beauty of the tree being 

 thus destroyed in one year's pruning. 



As to the proper time for general pruning, 

 there are two seasons of vigorous growth, 

 the one in May, the other in July, and the 

 critical period appears to be just afler the 

 July shooting has taken place ; then the 

 wood will be firm, and the fluids of the tree, 

 although not quite inactive, will be in a 

 state of comparative quietude, yet producing 

 granulation over the wounded surfaces ; but 

 if the branches be cut back at or before the 

 season of the July shooting, the lower buda 

 will be stimulated to produce in most cases 

 a multitude of weak shoots, all of which 

 must afterwards be cut out, or if one only be 

 left, it has to undergo the same treatment, 

 and with a similar result : thus, time is lost, 

 the powers of the tree are taxed to no pur- 

 pose, and no fruitful buds are obtained. The 

 winter pruning may be understood as that 

 period just preceding the enlargement of the 

 buds in March or April, because the fluids, 



