PBU 



[ 669 ] 



PRU 



P. vulga'ris hi'spida (bristly). Pale purple. July. 

 Europe. 



pinnati'fida (deep - cut - leaved). Purple. 



July. South Europe. 



ru'fira (red). $. Red. July. Britain. 



Webbia'na (Webb's). 1. Lilac. August. 



PEUNING, as practised in the garden, 

 has for its object the regulation of the 

 branches to secure the due production of 

 blossom and maturity of fruit. If carried 

 to too great an extent that object is not 

 attained, for every tree requires a certain 

 amount of leaf-surface for the elabora- 

 tion of its sap ; and, therefore, if this be 

 reduced too much, blossom-buds are pro- 

 duced less abundantly, for leaves are 

 more necessary for the health of the 

 plant ; and by a wise provision, the parts 

 less requisite for individual vigour are 

 superseded by the parts more needed. 

 On the other hand, if the branches are 

 left too thick, they overshadow those be- 

 neath them, and so exclude the light as 

 to prevent that elaboration of the sap, 

 without which no blossom - buds are 

 formed, but an excessive production of 

 leaves, in the vain effort to attain, by an 

 enlarged surface, that elaboration which 

 a smaller surface would effect in a more 

 intense light. The appropriate pruning 

 is given when considering each species of 

 fruit trees, and here we must confine our- 

 selves to a few general remarks. The 

 season for pruning must be regulated, in 

 some degree, by the strength of the tree ; 

 for although, as a general rule, the opera- 

 tion should not take place until the fall 

 of the leaf indicates that vegetation has 

 ceased, yet if the tree be weak, it may be 

 often performed with advantage a little 

 earlier, but still so late in the autumn as 

 to prevent the protrusion of fresh shoots. 

 This reduction of the branches before 

 the tree has finished vegetating directs a 

 greater supply of sap to those remaining, 

 and stores up in them the supply for in- 

 creased growth next season. If the pro- 

 duction of spurs be the object of pruning 

 a branch, it should be pruned so as to 

 leave a stump ; because, as the sap sup- 

 plied to the branch will be concentrated 

 upon those buds remaining at its extre- 

 mity, these will be productive of shoots, 

 though otherwise they would have re- 

 mained dormant, it being the general 

 habit of plants first to develope and ma- 

 ture those parts that are farthest from 

 the roots. It is thus that the filbert is 

 induced to put forth an abundance of 

 young bearing wood, for its fruit is borne 



on the annual shoots, and similar treat- 

 ment to a less severe extent is practised 

 upon wall-fruit. 



The chief guide in pruning consists in 

 being well acquainted with the mode of 

 the bearing of the different sorts of trees, 

 and forming an early judgment of the 

 future events of shoots and branches, and 

 many other circumstances, for which 

 some principal rules may be given ; but 

 there are particular instances which can- 

 not be judged of but upon the spot, and 

 depend chiefly upon practice and obser- 

 vation. Peaches, Nectarines, and Apricots 

 all produce their fruit principally upon 

 the young wood of a year old ; that is, the 

 shoots produced this year bear the year 

 following; so that in all these trees a. 

 general supply of the best shoots of each 

 year must be everywhere preserved at 

 regular distances, from the very bottom 

 to the extremity of the tree on every 

 side ; but in winter-pruning, or general 

 shortening, less or more, according to the 

 strength of the different shoots, is neces- 

 sary, in order to promote their throwing 

 out, more effectually, a supply of young 

 wood the ensuing summer, in proper 

 place for training in for the succeeding- 

 year's bearing. 



Vines produce their fruit always upon 

 the young wood-shoots of the same year, 

 arising from the eyes of the last year's 

 wood only ; and must, therefore, have a 

 general supply of the best regular shoots 

 of each year trained in, which, in winter- 

 pruning, must be shortened to a few eyes, 

 in order to force out shoots from their 

 lower parts, only properly situated to lay 

 in for bearing the following year. 



Figs bear also only upon the young 

 wood of a year old, and a general supply 

 of it is, therefore, necessary every year; 

 but these shoots must at no time be 

 shortened, unless the ends are dead, be- 

 cause they always bear principally to- 

 wards the extreme part of the shoots r 

 which, if shortened, would take the bear- 

 ing or fruitful parts away ; besides, they 

 naturally throw out a sufficient supply of 

 shoots every year for future bearing, 

 without the precaution of shortening. 



Apple, Pear, Plum, and Cherry trees 

 bear principally on spurs, arising in the 

 wood of from two or three to ten or 

 twenty years old, the same branches and 

 spurs continuing to bear a great number 

 of years ; so that, having once procured 

 a proper set of branches to form a spread- 



