SEASON FOR PRUNING. 57 



CHAPTER VI. 



SEASON FOR PRUNING. THE USE OF COAL-TAR. 



Season for Pruning. The most favorable season of 

 the year for pruning is the autumn, when the days are 

 still long and pleasant. The sudden and severe frosts, 

 however, which often occur at this season of the year, 

 are dangerous, and in some instances have a tendency 

 to cause decay in freshly made wounds. In winter 

 the days are too short, and often too stormy, to allow 

 continuous work of this nature ; while the loss of sap 

 which occurs when trees are pruned in the spring, 

 although considerably checked by the use of coal-tar, 

 is probably rightly considered injurious. The leaves 

 interfere with pruning during the summer months 

 when, too, there is danger of the workmen inflict- 

 ing injury on the growing tender shoots of neigh- 

 boring trees ; but a tree may be pruned at any season 

 of the year, and the best time for pruning is that 

 which is most convenient, and when it can be most 

 cheaply performed. 



All trees, whatever the nature of the soil in which 

 they grow, may be advantageously and profitably 



