170 



GENESEE FARMER. 



July, 



PruniHg. 



In the May number of the Farmer, we pre- 

 sented an extract from the " Gardener's Chroni- 

 cle," with cuts illustrative of the practical use of 

 the knife in pruning. We hope that those of 

 the readers of this paper who are personally en- 

 gaged, more or less, in the culture of fruit trees, 

 will give this important subject due attention. — 

 Not a day passes over our head that we are not 

 questioned, again and again, on this subject of 

 pruning. Presuming that the previous article rela- 

 ting to the handwork has been properly regarded, 

 we proceed with extracts from the same source, on 

 THE PRINCIPLES OF PRUNING. 



The general principles of pruning, as distinguished from 

 handword, are few in number, and among the easiest of all 

 things to understand ; but their application is manifold, oft- 

 en difficult, and always special. For example, it is an axi- 

 om that hard pruning produces barrenness, and that slight 

 pruning leads to productiveness ; a second well known law 

 is thri the removal of one bud or branch strengthens anoth- 

 er ; a third law teaches us, that to stop a branch by cutting 

 dway its extremity, compels what is left to produce side 

 branches, which might not have olherwise appeared. Then 

 again, the necessity for using the pruning-knife at all is oft- 

 en obviated by the employment of the finger and thumb ; 

 that is to eay. a young branch may be prevented from ap- 

 pearing by pinching off its bud as .soon as it begins to push, 

 as well as by first allowing it to grow, and then removing 

 it — and belter. All these, and all such, facts are plain to 

 the meanest capacity ; the difficulty is how to apply them, 

 and who, and where. The answer to such questionis is only 

 to be found in experience, and in a very careful examination 

 of the peculiar mode of growth of each species of tree to be 

 operated on. For no two species of tree can be found of 

 which it is the nature to grow, and flower, and fruit, exact- 

 ly in the same way, and every variation in the manner of 

 growing, flowering, and fruiting, demands a corresponding 

 variation in the mode of applying the principles of pruning. 



We know, indeed, of but one gen.^ral fact which may be, 

 we would rather say should be, invariably attended to, and 

 that is the universal necessity of keeping branches thin. — 

 Light in abundance, and the freest circulation of air among 

 leaves, are of vital importance to all plants ; but these can- 

 not be secured unless the branches are left thin. A crowd of 

 branches implies acrowd of leaves, and in a crowd leaves can 

 neither breathe nor perspire, nor feed ; in fact they are smoth ■ 

 ered. But when they stand well apart, they breathe freely, 

 perspire profusely, and feed incessantly; the result of which 

 consists in (ine, strong, stiffshoots, and dark green fat leaves, 

 instead of spindling twigs and yellow weasened foliage. 



It is true that this statement appears at first sight to be op- 

 posed to a common physiological axiom that tlie health of a 

 plant is in prjportion to the number of its leaves ; because 

 H is probable that a well thinned fruit tree will have much 

 fewer leaves than a plant left to grow wild. But the axiom 

 alluded to is put in inexact words ; as our correspondent 

 *' W." very properly remarked in last week's paper, it is 

 not the mere number of leaves that determines the hea'th 

 of most plants, but the superficial area of foliage exposed to 

 light and air ; a material dilTerence. For example, suppose 

 that one branch has but 10 leaves, the whole area of which 

 shall be expressed by the number 100 ; and that another 

 branch has 20 leaves, the area of which shall be equal to 

 120 ; the inference would not be that the latter would con- 

 duce to the health of a plant more than the former, unless it 

 could also be shown that the 20 leaves were each as well 

 lighted and aired as the 10, w hich in the head of a tree would 

 be improbable. And if the 20 leaves had only an area of 

 »0, it is clear that they would be less efieciive than the 10 

 having an area of 100, all other circumstances being equal. 

 Of course we do not mean that a gardener is to calculate 

 the exact superficial contents of a leaf before he can tell 

 whether to remove it or not ; we only put the argument in- 

 to this form for the sake of illustration. Such being the gen- 

 eral lacts connected with the op: ration of pruning scientifi- 

 cally, we shall proceed to details, and commence with the 

 Pear-tree, the most important of nil our hardy fruit trees. 



PRUNING THE PEAR TREE 

 May be considered under the following heads — fifst, when 



it is grown as a Standard ; second, as a Ihcarf ; and third, 

 as trained against a Wall, or Espalier. 



In pruning it is always necessary to bear in mind the nat- 

 ural disposition of a tree, in order to foresee the probable 

 consequences of every cut that is made. When left t ojta 

 natural growth, the Pear-tree, generally speaking, a?3l ^p a 

 to a height of 30 to 40 feet, or more, with a stem w^casion- 

 ally of considerable length ; but frequently subdividing at 

 less than 6 feet above the surface of the ground ; and the 

 lower the subdivisions take placo, the greater their tenden- 

 cy to assume the naked character of stems to a distance of 

 several feet from their bases. Ultimately the top is formed 

 of a roundish, spreading, or pyramidal form, on the outside 

 of which the fruit is for the most part produced, and hence 

 it occupies the best position for enjoying the beneficial intld- 

 ences of light and air. 



An example will put in a clear light the necessity of study- 

 ing the natural disposition of this tree. Suppose a persoa 

 were required to keep a tree within certain prescribed lim- 

 its far short of its natural height, and that, regardless of ila 

 incessant tendency to attain that height, he cut annually 

 with reference merely to the assigned limits. Year after 

 year he would find these limits exceeded by a shoot or 

 shoots disposed to mount as stems, and he might consume a 

 life-lime in vain attempts, by direct opposition, to subvert 

 the natural tendencies of the tree. A skilful pruner, on the 

 other hand, would attempt no such thing. He would not 

 labor to waste thus the energies of his tree ; but by gentle 

 and scieniiiic means, he would direct them towards tlie pro- 

 duction of fruit, as will be hereafter explained. 



These remarks serve to show th.it the Standard form be- 

 ing the most natural, requires the least opposition of growth 

 by the knife, and therefore its pruning may be first detailed. 



If we commence with the young tree, having one shoot 

 or summer's growth from the graft or bud, technically call- 

 ed a "maiden" plant, the first object is to rear a stem of the 

 requisite height, and of sufficient strength ; 6 feet of clear, 

 stem is a usual height for orchard/s. It is possible to have 

 every stem of this height or within an inch of il more or 

 le.fs. The shoot above alluded to, and indeed every shoot- 

 will be seen furnished with buds from bottom to top ; 3nd^ 

 every one of these buds is capable of producing a shoot un- 

 der favorable circumstances ; but the uppermost bud gene- 

 rally takes the lead, whilst many of the lower do not break, 

 into shoots, and frequently none of them do so, unless in- 

 duced to push by artificial means. Now, it must be ei.pe- 

 cially borne in mind, that if the shoot be cut back some- 

 portion of its length at the winter pruning, the sap which. 

 otherwise would have gone to the upper portion of the 

 shoot, is appropriated by those buds that are left ; and it 

 acts with greatest force on those immediately below the 

 wound, three of which are almost invariably stimulated so- 

 as to produce shoots. Therefore, when the plant has at- 

 tained the height of not less than (ii feet, take a six-feet rod, 

 place it by the stem, cut above the third bud beyond the top' 

 of the rod ; and thus the height of the stem will be deter- 

 mined. The three buds immediately above the 6 feet, be- 

 ing those next the cut, will seldom foil to push shoots, fironj 

 which others must be made to diverge in a regular manner, 

 forming the principal limbs of the tree. 



Care should be taken to have the young stems of suffi- 

 cient strength ; in fact as strong and likewise as straight as 

 possible. They are loo frequently seen of almost an equal 

 thickness, tall enough, but flexible as a Willow, and straight 

 only when tied to u stake. Such is invariably tlie case 

 when the stem, in shooting up, is divested of leaves, with 

 the exception of a few at the top. The reverse of this bar- 

 barous practice should be followed. An abundant foliage 

 should be encouraged. A long naked slender rod hearing 

 only a few leaves, is not that natuiiil mode of growth by 

 which the wild Pear-tree forms a strong erect stein without 

 the aid of str-kes. A young stem with 50 leaves will in- 

 crease in substance, at least five times as much as one with 

 only 10 leaves, all other circumstances being the same. — 

 Again, if these 50 leaves grow on a shoot all along from ils 

 base, that shoot will t>e found an elongated cone, a form of 

 growth more substantial than would result from the same 

 number of leaves, or even more, situated on branches at 

 the top of an elsewhere naked stem. The same quantity of 

 substance may be deposir.ed by the latter arrangement, btft 

 more equally along the stem, and the stem itself may be com- 

 pared to a strcnra which receives no tributaries in iiscourso. 



Clean stems are desirable, but in endeavoring to obtain 

 such their stf ng'h mist not be sacrit eed. If laterals push 

 from the shoot of the same summer's growth they must not 



