69 PRUNING. 



For the redress of this woful wrong, it is only 

 necessary to distinguish a fruit spur from a wooden 

 knob which any one a little more discerning than 

 the knob, can be at no loss to do and, having 

 made this distinction, to apply the saw, or a strong 

 knife, or the chisel and mallet, sparing the knobs 

 as little as honey bees do their drones. Then will 

 your flower buds once more see the sun, and re- 

 joice in their liberty, whilst the pith of the tree, 

 which the idle knobs consumed, will go to swell 

 your store of juicy apples and honey pears. Where 

 the vile hedge-pruning of the top branches has left 

 a strong, close, and lengthy stubble, you must pro- 

 ceed with a lower cut, and make all smooth, even 

 though your \vork should resemble that of peeling 

 oak for the sake of the bark. In the healing of 

 such sores the powers of nature are wonderful; and 

 it is just the tenderness which shuns the inflicting 

 of a wound that betrays the worst ignorance of the 

 pruner, and puts all trees, whether forest or fruit, 

 into the most unnatural and unhealthy condition. 1 



1 It were desirable to have the dispute as to the pruning of for- 

 est trees settled by an appeal to facts, and which might be ascer- 

 tained by those who are much conversant in the sawing and 

 planeing of old timber. There are two methods of pruning, each 

 of which has it peculiar fault. One method is to cut off a branch 

 close by the stem, and allow the bark to grow over the wound: and 

 the fault of this method is, that the process of healing may re- 

 quire some years, during which time a certain decay on the sur- 

 face of the wound ensues, and the decayed matter, not being 

 absorbed, as improper substances are in the animal frame, must 

 continue as it is, and may probably constitute the source of a 

 spreading decay at a future period, after the new and healthy 



