86 



PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF PRUNING 



81. 4. Pruning does not alter the natural habit of plants, 

 for pruned plants resume their normal habit when left to 

 themselves. 



Ordinary observation will show that each plant speci- 

 men, variety and species has an individuality which dis- 

 tinguishes it from every other plant. No matter what way 

 or how much it may be pruned, therefore, it will seek to ex- 

 press that individuality in the new growth which follows 



pruning, and its success 

 will be largely propor- 

 tional to its vigor. 

 Trees which naturally 

 sprawl, like Winter 

 Nelis pear and Rhode 

 Island Greening apple, 

 cannot be made to 

 grow erect by mere 

 pruning, and those nor- 

 mally erect, like North- 

 ern Spy and Rartlett, 

 cannot be made to 

 droop. Rational prun- 

 ing, therefore, seeks 

 merely to correct faults 

 and to maintain the 

 natural form of the 

 tree. 



The proof of this rule is seen in the wilds and in orchards 

 which formerly were trained in more or less artificial ways, 

 but which have latterly been neglected. In nature trees 

 which have been blown over or bent and held down by other 

 trees falling upon them frequently develop new leaders 

 (Fig. 62, 63) ; in neglected .orchards the formal outline of 

 the artificially trained tree may often be traced through the 

 surrounding younger growths which make a top more or 

 less strikingly different in form. 



FIG. 63 

 LEADER RENEWED IN BROKEN TREE 



