PHILOSOPHY OF PRUNING. 253 



as possible from their natural habit. Again, we prune to 

 make them grow vigorously, and we perform other pruning 

 operations, in order to dwarf and stunt our specimens, and 

 to make them as diminutive as possible. The experienced 

 orchardist will tell you to prune a barren but thrifty tree, 

 in order to make it productive of fruit; and he will also tell 

 you to prune one that has expended all its energies in 

 fruit-bearing, and appears likely to exhaust itself to its own 

 destruction. Upon very high authority, supported by uni- 

 versal and annual practice, the vine dresser will tell you to 

 prune your vine in order to make it fruitful ; the same 

 authority will advise you to prune in such a manner as to 

 prevent an over-production and he will insist that you 

 shall prune again during the season of growth, to promote 

 the same objects. 



Thus it appears that the'ends to be attained by this im- 

 portant operation are exceedingly diverse, and apparently 

 contradictory : nor is it any wonder that the novice should 

 feel bewildered in the midst of directions so opposite, nor 

 even that those who have grown gray in the orchard, 

 should have arrived at the strange conclusions just men- 

 tioned, not to prune at all. And yet, notwithstanding 

 these apparent contradictions, there is a reason for each 

 of these various modes, as well as for the different seasons 

 that have been recommended for performing the several 

 operations of pruning. 



It may be said that in natural trees, whether standing 

 alone in the midst of a prairie, thinly grouped in the 

 " opening," or crowded together in the dense forest, we 

 may behold the most perfect models of beauty and fruit- 

 fulness ; yet these have never been subjected to the action 



