ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AND FARMING. 333 



vegetable system impleted, but before the pores and sap 

 passages have acquired a contractile power. Thus, if a 

 grape is pruned when the buds begin to swell, the wood 

 does not contract, and the vine bleeds to excess. But if 

 pruned after the leaves are as large as the palm of the 

 hand, no injury ensues from cutting, for now .the sap pas- 

 sages contract and close speedily. 



Thus if a tree be handled before or after this period, it 

 does not suffer ; but if pruned at, this critical state of the 

 wood, it will bleed, the stump part will become diseased, 

 probably from the relaxed state of the woody tissue, and 

 canker will ensue a word indicating, we presume, simply 

 a state of decay, covered by or accompanied with, some 

 sort of fungus growth. 



Pruning before this critical time, is sometimes the most 

 convenient. But if it be a question, at which of the two 

 periods is the tree in a state to suffer the least, and to 

 recover the soonest, we say, after it is in full leaf and wett 

 a-growing, viz. the last of May and the first of June. The 

 wood has then a contractile force, does not bleed ; the tree 

 is making new wood with great energy, and has therefore 

 a full supply of organizable matter with which promptly to 

 heal the wound. 



Mr. O. V. Hill thus speaks in the Boston Cultivator : 



" Fruit growers at the present day, are generally of the 

 opinion, that the proper time for pruning is the last of 

 May or early in June, when the tree is in full leaf and in a 

 vigorous, growing state. This, on many accounts, appears 

 to be the most suitable season, as the wounds heal much 

 more rapidly, the tree throws out less suckers, canker is 

 avoided and the sap circulates freely to every part of the 

 tree ; but there are some objections to pruning in the 

 early part of summer, which I do not recollect to have seen 

 noticed. Any one who is familiar with vegetable physi- 

 ology is aware that there is a new layer of wood and a new 

 layer of bark deposited every year, and that in June this 



