186 



THE GENESEE FAEMER. 



COXDUCTED BV JOSEPH FROSt! 



PRUNING. 



The object to be obtained by pnuiini^and tliiiinino; 

 is the form of the plant, its tVuitriihiess, and the re- 

 moval of disease. In this it is purposed to treat prin- 

 cipally upon fruit bearing, the cause of the barrenness 

 of some trees, and its remedies. 



It is known that almost every description of fruit 

 tree planted in a thin stratum of good loamy soil, 

 with a hard, dry, and impervious subsoil, will come in- 

 to bearing at its natural season. Every person, too, 

 has noticed forest and fruit trees which have been par- 

 tially thrown oiU of the ground by high winds, the 

 roots exposed, m the trunks or branches injured by 

 exposure, are tways more fruitful than others. 



Those trees that are grown under opposite circum- 

 stances only are barren, unless that some temporary 

 cause should interfere, such as late frosts or other 

 perverse circumstances. It is a frequent complaint 

 thatsuch a tree grows very fast; but not a single 

 specimen of fruit has been seen upoa it. 



As a cure for these things, various remedies are 

 proposed. Taos. Rivers, the eminent English horti- 

 culturist, has succeeded admirably in producing fruit 

 from heretofore barren trees, by root pruning at reg- 

 ular annual or l)iennial seasons, lie recommends 

 root pruning fruit trees of twenty or thirty years 

 growth as follows: 



" Dig a circular trench as early in the autumn as 

 possible around the stem of the plant, which should 

 not be nearer than three feet, and only two-thirds of 

 the roots should be pruned the first season, leaving 

 one-third as support to the tree, so that it is not 

 blown on one side by the wind, and these, of course, 

 must be left where they will best give this support. 

 The following season half the remaining roots maybe 

 cut, or if the tree be inclined to vigor all of tliem ; 

 but if it gives symptoms of being checked too much, 

 they may, on the contrary, remain undisturbed for 

 one or even two seasons." 



The treatment thus given for plants of the same 

 age in tliis country, we think, would be too severe, as 

 trees attain a much larger size during the same period 

 of growth than in England. If the distance from 

 the stem of the plant to the circular trench was from 

 foni' to six feet, we think it would be better, or in 

 proportion to the size of the tree; and instead of 

 two-thirds of the roots to be pruned the first season, 

 say one-half, which might prove to be ample, though 

 experience would be the best guide. 



Many pereons in purchasing Pears of varieties on 

 Quince stocks, have found that while some produced 

 fruit very abundantly, others did not. The root prun- 

 ing method is particularly applicable to not only 

 Pears on Quince, but dwarf Cherries, Apples, &c., 

 making them come into bearing at once. The operation 

 is performed in the most simple and easy manner, and 

 requiring but very httle labor and attention. In des- 

 cribing the manner it is done with these small trees, 

 we cannot do better than to give the author's own 

 words, which seem applicable to small fniit gardens; 



where the trees are of larger size, the operations must 

 be in proportion. It will be seen that the same sys- 

 tem may be applied with favorable results to unfruit- 

 ful I'ear trees on Quince grown in orchards, which 

 are of large size; but as we said before, the opera- 

 tions must correspond with the size of the plants. 



Mr. Rivers says: "Before entering on the subject 

 of root ])runing of Pear trees on Quince stocks, I 

 must premise that handsome and fertile pyramids, 

 more particularly of some free bearing varieties, may 

 be reared without this annual, biennial or triennial op- 

 eration. I have a large plantation of Pear trees on 

 Quince stocks, which bid fair to make very handsome 

 and fertile pyramids, yet they have not been root 

 pruned, neither do I intend to prune them; but I 

 wish to impress upon my readers, that my principal 

 object is to make trees fit for small gardens, and to 

 instruct those who are not blessed with a small gar- 

 den how to keep their trees perfectly under control ; 

 and this can best be done by annual, or at least bi- 

 ennial, attention to their roots; for if a tree be suffer- 

 ed to grow three or more years and then root pruned, 

 it will receive a check if the spring be dry, and the 

 crop of fruit for one season be jeopardised. There- 

 fore, those who are disinclined to the annual opera- 

 tion, and yet wish to confine the growth of their trees 

 within limited bounds by root pruning — say once in 

 three years — should only operate upon one-third of 

 their trees. They will thus have two- thirds in an un- 

 checked bearing state; and those who have ample 

 room and space may summer pinch their pjTamids, 

 and suffer them to grow to a height of fifteen or 

 twenty feet without pruning their roots. I have seen 

 avenues of such trees in Belgium really quite impos- 

 ing. Pyramidal Pear trees on the Quince stock, 

 where the fruit garden is small, and the real garden- 

 ing artist feels pleasure in keeping them in a healliiy 

 and fruitful state by perfect control over the roots, 

 should be operated upon as follows: A trench should 

 be dug around the tree about eighteen inches from its 

 stem, every autumn, just after the fruit is gathered, if 

 the soil be sufficiently moist; if not, it will be better 

 to wait until the usual autumnal rains have fallen ; 

 the roots carefully examined, those inclined to per- 

 pendicular growth cut with the spade, which must I^e 

 introduced quite under the tree to meet on all sides, 

 so that no root can possibly escape amputation, and 

 all the horizontal roots, except those that are very 

 small and fibrous, shortened with the knife to -within 

 a circle of eighteen inches from the stem, and all 

 brought as near to the surface as pos-sible, filling in 

 the trench with compost for the roots to rest on; the 

 trench may then be filled with the compost; well rot- 

 ted dung, and the mold from an old hot-bed, equal 

 parts, will answer equally well; the surface should then 

 be covered with some half-rotted dung, and the i-oots 

 left, till the following autumn brings its annual care. 

 It may be found that after a few years of root prun- 

 ing, the circumferential mass of fibers will have be- 

 come too much matted, and that some of the roots 

 are bare of fibers towards the stem of the tree. In 

 such cases thin out some of the roots, shortening 

 them at nine inches or one foot from the stem ; this 

 will cause them to give out fibers, so that the entire 

 circle of three feet or more around the tree is full of 

 fibrous roots near the surface, waiting with open 



