INJUDICIOUS PRUNING. 15 



resource and panacea for all evils. All their errors, they 

 think, are thus obliterated until the next season's wood shall 

 recommence. A tree severely cut back, and tightly nailed 

 in, looks so very knowing, and argues so much forethought! 

 No matter the age or kind of tree, a smart semicircle is de- 

 scribed over its unhappy limbs, and branch after branch disap- 

 pears "at one draw." The employer, meanwhile, looks on 

 with amazement and wonder. The growth, progress, and 

 periods of repose required by nature are highly suggestive to 

 the thoughtful mind. Tlie period of rest is now come, that 

 of active labor, ceases. All that was necessary to be done 

 should have been accomplished before the stage of repose. 

 Some little supplementary work still remains, for plants, as 

 well as animated beings, are never absolutely idle ; but the 

 severer discipline applied to the tree should not be reserved for 

 the winter pruning. During their stage of growth, superabun- 

 dant vigor is restrained and checked, because at that early pe- 

 riod wounds are not so difficult to heal, and the mere growth 

 of the tree will soon cause them to disappear. A tree neglected 

 during the summer will soon show signs of this forgetfulness. 

 It will then be no proper remedy to use the pruning knife 

 with energy. It is as in life ; we can only hope with reason 

 to turn aside the violence of a wrong bias at the outset. An 

 even balance should be preserved ; no part of the whole sys- 

 tem should run riot while the remainder unfairly languishes. 

 Neither should winter pruning ever take place during a frosty 

 season, for the knife lacerates the hardened wood and induces 

 decay. To delay the pruning till the tree begins to feel the 

 first movements of spring vegetation is also pernicious, for 

 then the check is too great. 



In the case of the peach, however, a mere beginner had 

 better delay his pruning until he can fairly distinguish be- 

 tween a flower bud and a leaf bud. 



Should the number of trees' be great, the proper plan 

 would be to commence with the apricots, then the peaches; 

 after these the plums, the cherries and the pears, reserving the 

 apples for the last. A simple rule, but not generally known. 



