Principles of Pruning 173 



CHAPTER VII 



Principles of Pruning 



Pruning is one of the most interesting and fascinating 

 operations connected with horticultural work. A plant is 

 a plastic, responding, changing organism which is affected 

 by everything we do to it. We cannot remove a single 

 branch without affecting the parts which remain. The 

 shortening of any limb modifies to a greater or less extent 

 the character which will be assumed by the parts which 

 remain. A plant is capable of being shaped or moulded 

 by pruning, and he who prunes will surely get results. 

 However, as to whether these results are what are to be 

 most desired will have to be learned by experience. One 

 must prune and watch the results over a series of years 

 to learn just what effects any particular treatment will 

 give, as the plant grows. 



Pruning cannot be learned from books. It must be 

 learned by studying the habits of plants and the results of 

 pruning. Books on pruning can, however, give one ideas 

 which will enable one more readily to learn how to prune 

 when he conies to do the work. The reading will be help- 

 ful only as it guides the operations in the field, and the 

 horticulturist himself must learn directly from the plants 

 themselves. 



It is an easy matter to learn how to prune where one 

 has the plants to work upon, and the time to watch their 

 responses to the operations made upon them; but it is a 

 difficult matter to tell others how to prune. No two plants 



