34 



modified use of the knife, and this portion of the art 

 pruning properly so called, as distinct from the first 

 shaping that has been here described, will be dealt with in 

 another chapter. It is easy to recognise in many fruit- 

 gardens, all over the country, the result either of entire 

 ignorance of the art of tree-shaping, or of several years' 

 neglect followed by a spurt of action with the saw and the 

 knife. One often sees a clump of apple trees which have 

 been duly planted and cut back, perfectly correctly, knee 

 high or less, to four or five laterals. Then something has 

 occurred to interrupt the care of the fruit-patch for a few 

 seasons. The laterals have grown out and upwards into 

 great boughs as thick as one's wrist. Anon comes repent- 

 ance with the saw, and cats them back shoulder-high, 

 making a huge wound which will take years to callus over. 

 A great crop of shoots rises from the dormant buds below 

 the section, and the head of the tree above the post-like 

 branches thickens up into a dense bush of barren wood with 

 here and there a strong leader struggling outwards to air 

 and light. Never having been stopped back they have no 

 fruiting spurs f and blossom only on the last year's growth 

 at the very top. In due time there appears on each of 

 these flexible rods a bunch of apples jammed up against 

 each other to get space to grow, and bobbing round in the 

 wind. This is truly how not to do it. These are the 

 places where Sehizoneu^a or woolly blight, and Scland'ia, the 

 pear- slug, most do congregate, and establish nests of infec- 

 tion to destroy neighbou rs' orchards for miles around. Indeed 

 it would not be difficult to argue that if it be a sin and 

 shame for a man by ignorance or neglect to fail in duly 

 caring for his domestic animals, and if the law can be 

 invoked to make him treat these dumb children of the 

 Almighty properly, it is proportionately fitting that proper 

 knowledge and due care should be enforced upon every 

 man in the treatment of his fruit trees. It is asked " Shall 

 not a man do what he will with his own ? " the answer is, 

 Certainly not } the law prevents him from doing very many 

 things that either offend against the conscience, or create 

 a nuisance to his neighbours, and that latter malfeasance 

 is exactly what many orchards here and there are doing at 

 present. They are becoming hot-beds of insect and fungous 



