184 



THE PRACTICAL GARDEN -BOOK 



Sickle saw 



into shape and to revitalize them ; but the best Pruning- 

 treatment of an orchard is to Prune it a little every year. 

 It should be so Pruned that the tops of the trees 

 >will be open, that no two limbs will interfere 

 with each other, and so that the fruit itself will 

 not be so abundant as to overload the tree. 

 Pruning is a means of thinning. In general, 

 it is best to prune orchard trees late in win- 

 ter or early in spring. It is ordinarily better, 

 however, to leave peaches and other tender fruits until 

 after the buds have swollen, or even after the flowers 

 have fallen, in order that one may determine how much 

 they have been injured by the winter. Grape vines should 

 be Pruned in winter or not later (in New York) than the 

 first of March. If Pruned later than this, they may bleed. 

 The above remarks will apply to other trees as well as to k ^ e a - ,^ n g es 

 fruits. handle 



It should be borne in mind that Pruning has two ob- 

 jects: one is to merely trim the tree or to 

 make it assume some designed shape; the 

 other is to make the tree more vigorous or 

 more fruitful, or to make some other change 

 in its character. These ideals are well illus- 

 trated in the Pruning of ornamental shrubs. 

 If one wants to have the shrubs sheared into 

 some particular shape, the shearing 

 may be done at almost any time of the 

 year ; in fact, it is better to do it two 

 or three times each year in order to 

 keep the trees trim and neat. If, 

 however, the desire is to secure more 

 flowers, the case is a very different one. Some shrubs 

 and trees bear their flowers on the wood of the pre- 

 ceding year. Such, for example, are the early flower- 

 ing shrubs like lilacs and the snowballs. The flower 

 buds are made the fall before. In this case, Pruning 



Curved Pruning 

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