88 A TREATISE OF 



But before I fhew the method of prun-* 

 Ing tree§ defigntd for wails or efpahers, I 

 fhall make fome obfervations on thofe 

 kinds of ftandard fruit-trees that are na-* 

 tural to our climate j for, I think, in thefe 

 nature beft fhews us the time and manner 

 of pruning. 



If there are two apple, pear, plum or 

 cherry-trees, equal in health and ftrength, 

 at one year old after grafting, let them re^ 

 main fome years after in the fame ftations, 

 having fufficient fpace to extend their 

 branches in, and one of them be pruned, 

 and the other not, but fuffered to grow in 

 a fhape quite rude and natural, the latter 

 will produce fruit much earlier than the 

 other, though, perhaps, its branches will 

 not be in fo regular a pofition as thofe of 

 the former -, hence it may be reafonably in- 

 ferred, that premature pruning retards 

 bearing, and that pruning a healthy, ftrong 

 ftandard in* what manner foever, before 

 blofToming, will keep it longer back from 

 a bearing ftate tlian it would be, were it 

 left unpruned to the direction of nature 

 alone ^ for fhortening the branches takes 

 ^way the buds from the exti'emities, which 



always 



