on CHARD AXP VIXETAHD. 105 



Craning Versm M«tilation._There is, perhaps, no ohe item in hor- 

 ticulture about which bo little is really understood as the principle which 

 should govern in the pruning a-way of limba and branches from trees. The 

 following illustration will serve, perhaps, better than a long homily, to 

 show how we would prune a tree and keep it in condition from year to year, 

 liealthy and productive. Fig. 1 exhibits a tree which has had little or no 

 ))nining; its top branches have become rather crowded, and some seasons 

 the fruit is not well colored. Wc take our long stepladder and a pair of good, 

 strong pruning shears, set our ladder just outside, underneath the limbs, 

 and with our sharp shears cut away the small spray and Umbs that cross one 

 another and crowd the extremities, so as to prevent the sun's rays penetrat- 

 ing to the center of the tree. The dark, short marks indicate some of the 

 cuts that we should make in pruning the tree. Fig. 2, shown on next page, 

 exhibits the tree as it is often found afler the mutilator, not prtmer, has 

 operated upon it. Vandals roam 

 the country every spring claim- 

 ing to know how to prune trees. 

 We hope what we have here said 

 and illtistrated may save at least 

 one good orchard from this sys- 

 tem of murderous pruning. 



Pruning lor Fmlt. — By 



arresting or removing the little 

 faults of his children as soon as 

 they are shown, the wise father 

 prevents their attaining such in- 

 veteracy as will not submit to 

 correction, but burst out imme- 

 diately with fresh misdeeds. So 

 with orchard trees. It is a great 

 mistake to let growth run on 

 without restraint for two or three 

 years, and to suppose that a 

 pruning then will set all to rights. 

 The fundamental rule of the art 

 is to take away all young shoots 

 that are not fitted to make per- 

 manent bearing branches. Ke- 



move these, the sooner the better, but remove no others. Cut out and sup- 

 press all wild shoots that issue below the graft, and whose growth would 

 rob or smother it. Cut out all shoots in the interior of the trees that will not 

 have light enough in summer for the leaves of any tmit buds that might form 

 on them, and which could, therefore, not mature into fruitage. Thin the new 

 growth all over top so that no shoot will shade another or be shaded; those 

 that are left being such as extend the main bearing branches, which gardeners 

 call "leaders." Often a crowding branch can be propped or braced otitinto 

 open hght, and so two branches be relieved with Uttle or no pruning of either, 

 with a gain of large fruit-producing area. One other case must be noted: 

 that of a tree exhausted so much as to be covered with ftiiit buds and mak- 

 ing no new shoots. A tree in health should make new shoots every year all 

 over the top, at least eight inches long. If it does less, the soil is poor, 

 or the roots are robbed or dried, or the stem ia injured and cannot carry the 



