( 146 ) 
about the first of July, and continued to September, 
it will fail ; because it is only within that period that 
fruit buds are formed.(1) 
As your trees advance in age, they will require 
pruning. Suckers must be removed, and dead and 
dying limbs taken off. For this purpose a hand-saw, 
a chissel, a mallet and a gardener’s knife are the in- 
struments to be used: .all ofhers must be proscribed, 
and particularly the axe, which, inthe hands of folly 
and ignorance, has been so mischievous to fruit trees. 
Wounds, if large, should always be covered from 
drying winds, from moisture, and even from air. In 
gummy trees, as the peach or the cherry, this precau- 
tion is indispensible, and the neglect of it a disgrace, 
since the best covering is that composed of cow dung 
and clay—materials costing nothing and always at 
hand. | 
On this subject we have but one other rule to give, 
and that is, to open the ground about the roots of 
your trees in the fall, to the influences of the air, rain 
and frost. The last of these, besides promoting ve- 
getation, destroys many insects in the chrysalis state, 
which, if left undisturbed, would in the spring be 
very injurious. Another part of the same rule is, to 
cover with straw, in the spring, the ground you make 
bare in the fall; the object of which is to prevent 
evaporation by intercepting the rays of the sun, and 
thus securing to the roots the moisture necessary to 
their welfare. 
(1) The circulation of the sap is then slowest. See Art. Courbure, Nouveau Cours 
@ Agriculture, Vol. iv, 
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