No. 1. 



Pruning, 



35 



Pruning, 



As practised in the garden, has for its ob- 

 ject the regulation of the branches to secure 

 the due production of blossom and maturity 

 of fruit. If carried to too great an extent, 

 that object is not attained, for every tree re- 

 quires a certain amount of leaf-surface for 

 the elaboration of its sap; and, therefore, if 

 this be reduced too much, blossom buds are 

 produced less abundantly, for leaves are more 

 necessary for the health of the plant, and by 

 a wise provision the parts less requisite for 

 individual vigor are superseded by the parts 

 more needed. On the other hand, if the 

 branches are left too thick, they overshadow 

 those beneath them, and so exclude the 

 light, as to prevent that elaboration of the 

 sap, without which no blossom buds are 

 formed, but an excessive production of leaves, 

 in the vain efibrt to attain by an enlarged 

 surface that elaboration which a smaller sur- 

 face would effect in a more intense light. 

 "The season for pruning must be regulated 

 in some degree by the strength of the tree; 

 for although, as a general rule, the operation 

 should not take place until the fall of the 

 leaf indicates that vegetation has ceased, 

 yet if the tree be weak, it may be often per- 

 forated with advantage a little earlier; but 

 still so late in the autumn as to prevent the 

 protrusion of fresh shoots. This reduction 

 of the branches before the free has finished 

 vegetating, directs a greater supply of sap 

 to those remaining, and stores up in them 

 the supply for increased growth next season. 

 If the production of spurs is the object of 

 pruning a branch, it should be pruned so as 

 to leave a stump; because as the sap sup- 

 plied to the branch will be concentrated upon 

 those buds remaining at its extremity, these 

 will be productive of shoots, though other- 

 wise they would have remained dormant, it 

 being the general habit of plants first to de- 

 velop and mature parts that are furthest from 

 the roots. It is thus the filbert is induced 

 to put forth an abundance of young bearing 

 wood, for its fruit is borne on the annual 

 shoots, and similar treatment to a less severe 

 extent is practised upon wall fruit." — Princ. 

 of Gardening-. 



The mystery of pruning consists in being 

 well acquainted with the mode of the bear- 

 ing of the different sorts of trees, and form- 

 ing an early judgment of the future events 

 of shoots and branches, and many other cir- 

 cumstances, for which some principal rules 

 may be given ; but there are particular in- 

 stances which cannot be judged of but upon 

 the spot, and depend chiefly upon practice 

 and observation. Peaches, nectarines, apri- 

 cots, &,€., all produce their fruit principally 



upon the young wood of a year old ; that is, 

 the shoots produced this year bear the year 

 following; so that in all these trees, a gene- 

 ral supply of the best shoots of each year 

 must be everywhere preserved at regular 

 distances, from the very bottom to the ex- 

 tremity of the tree on every side; but in 

 winter pruning, general shortening, less 

 or more, according to the strength of the 

 different shoots, is necessary, in order to pro- 

 mote their throwing out,- more effectually, a 

 supply of young wood the ensuing summer, 

 in proper place for training in for the suc- 

 ceeding year's bearing. 



Vines also produce their fruit always upon 

 the young wood shoots of the same year, 

 arising from the eyes of the last year's wood 

 only; and must, therefore, have a general 

 supply of the best regular shoots of each 

 year trained in, which, in winter pruning, 

 must be shortened to a few eyes, in order to 

 force out shoots from their lower parts, only 

 properly situated to lay in for bearing the 

 following year. 



Figs bear also only upon the young wood 

 of a year old, and a general supply of it is, 

 therefore, necessary every year; but these 

 shoots must at no tinie be shortened, unless 

 the ends are dead, because they always bear 

 principally towards the extreme pait of the 

 shoots, which, if shortened, would take the 

 bearing or fruitful parts away; besides, they 

 naturally throw out a sufficient supply of 

 shoots every year for future bearing, without 

 the precaution of shortening. 



Apple, pear, plum, and cherry trees bear 

 principally on spurs, arising in the wood 

 from two or three, to ten or twenty years 

 old, the same branches and spurs continuing 

 bearing a great number of years; so that, 

 having once procured a proper set of branches 

 in the manner already directed to form a 

 spreading head, no further supply of wood is 

 wanted than some occasional shoots now and 

 then to supply the place of any worn out or 

 dead branch. The abovementioned spurs or 

 fruit buds are short robust roots from about 

 half an inch to one or two inches long, aris- 

 ing naturally, first towards the extreme parts 

 of the branches of two or three years old, 

 and, as the branch increases in length, the 

 number of fruit buds increases accordingly. 

 In pruning always cut quite close, both in 

 the summer and winter pruning, which, in 

 the summer pruning, if attended to early, 

 while the shoots are quite young and tender, 

 they may readily be rubbed off quite close 

 with the thumb; but when the shoots be- 

 come older and woody, as they will not rea- 

 dily break, it must be done with a knife, 

 cutting them as close as possible; and all 

 winter pruning must always be performed 



