APPLE TREE. 197 



13 left nt the bottom of stercoraries and barn yards ; and 

 in short almost all manures which do not harbor insects. 

 (Fresh stable manure is therefore improper.) These 

 substances applied annually, or once in two years, will 

 produce surprising effects, and the farmer will be am- 

 ply compensated. Manuring, however must not be car- 

 ried to excess, as too great a stimulus applied to trees, 

 facilitates the luxurient growth of wood, and renders the 

 branches less productive of fruit. 



Pruning. There is no branch of the management of 

 orchards less understood, or more unskilfully perform- 

 ed, than the operation of prunmg. When it is judic- 

 iously done, fruit trees, it is said, will come into bear- 

 ing sooner, produce more abundantly, and continue in 

 vigour for nearly double the common age. When trees 

 are properly pruned in the nursery, there will be less 

 employment for the pruning knife at all future periods ; 

 it will nevertheless be indispensably necessary to re- 

 trench superfluous shoots and branches in every succes- 

 sive year of their existence. The most proper season 

 for pruning, is when the sap is in active motion. If 

 large Ifmbs are lopped off, several inches from the 

 trunk, before this time, the fresh bark round the wood 

 becomes dry, large cavities are formed, which rapidly 

 extend towards the trunk and heart, and the tree is soon 

 deprived of its vigor. In New-England the sap com- 

 mences its circulation about the 10th of April. From 

 this period to about the first of May the pruning should 

 be accomplished. If the work is done much later than 

 this, the bark is apt to peel, which is very injurious. 

 For performing the work, a saw, chisel, and pruning 

 knife, are necessary. Various substances are recom- 

 mended to apply to the wounded parts, to defend against 

 wet, cold air, or the scorching sun. Fresh cow dung 

 tied on with a cloth ; the composition used for grafting ; 

 tar or thick paint ; or an ointment composed of rosin, 

 bees-wax, and turpentine : have all been found good. 

 Large limbs should not be cut close to the main trunk of 

 a full grown tree, nor indeed a branch, which is too 

 large at the place of excision to close over again, as it 

 may destroy the tree, by opening an avenue to the air 

 and water, which induce rottenness, and, in course of 

 18 



