PRUNING. 51 



SECTION XL PRUNING. 



If the branches of a young tree, issuing at and above the 

 requisite height, be made, by pruning, to diverge from the 

 trunk in every direction above the horizontal, and the in- 

 terior of these be carefully kept from any interference with 

 each other for a few years, little pruning will ever after- 

 wards be necessary. 



Many of my remarks in this section have reference 

 principally to orchards of the apple, the peach, and the 

 pear, cultivated as standards in our own highly-favored 

 climate, and on an extensive scale, and are not intended 

 as applicable to the admirable system of cultivating fruit 

 trees in pyramidal form, or en quenouille. 



The complicated systems of the English for pruning the 

 apple, pear, peach, and plum, are not, in all respects, so 

 necessary for us ; they are, in part, adapted exclusively to 

 a cold climate. It is not necessary with us to lay open 

 and expose every part of the tree to the direct rays of the 

 sun ; the atmosphere being, in our climate, generally, of it- 

 self sufficient to ripen the fruit. 



Heavy pruning is seldom necessary or advisable ; but 

 when, as in the case of grafting, or of heading down for a 

 new growth, it becomes unavoidable, it should always be 

 performed in that interval between the time the frost is 

 coming out of the ground in spring, and the opening of 

 the leaf. 



A complete heading for any purpose should never be per- 

 formed in early summer, or while the tree is in the most 

 active stage of its growth. It causes a sudden stagnation 

 of the juices, and induces a sort of paralysis. And if the 

 tree does not die outright, it grows no more, or but feebly, 

 during the remainder of the season. 



Yet for that moderate pruning which alone is generally 

 needful, June and July, and during the longest days of 

 summer, is the very best time ; for wounds of all kinds heal 

 admirably at this period, the wood remaining sound and 

 bright ; and even a tree debarked at this season recovers a 

 new bark immediately. 



Trees ought not to be pruned in February and March, at 

 the time the frost is coming out of the ground. This is 

 the season when most trees, and particularly the vine and 

 5Ugar maple, bleed most copiously and injuriously. It 



