216 Summer Pruning of Fruit Trees, S^c. 



before your readers in the last number of your valuable 

 Magazine. I shall again, with your permission, endeavor 

 to give a more lengthened description of the lime and man- 

 ner the operation should, and ought to be, performed, con- 

 chiding with a few observations on training young fruit 

 trees in the pyramidal form. 



In order to render a knowledge of summer pruning avail- 

 able to others, it will be indispensably necessary to describe 

 the system in such a manner that the ideas derived from it 

 may be easily comprehended and put into practice. In the 

 first place, the proper time to commence the first pruning 

 will be in some measure guided by the forwardness or late- 

 ness of ihe season, the health and vigor of the tree, and 

 the soil and situation in which it is placed. 



In ordinary seasons, in this climate, the middle of June 

 may be taken as a general rule for commencing, say when 

 the shoots have grown about a foot long : then with a sharp 

 knife cut ofi" about an inch from their growing points ; the 

 shoots, in consequence of this check, cease to elongate, and 

 the sap, instead of being expended in the formation of use- 

 less wood, is directed to increase the production of fruit. 

 The practice generally heretofore followed, in summer pru- 

 ning apple, pear, plum and cherry trees, has been to cut 

 the young shoots back within two or three eyes of the 

 base ; by this means, all the leaves which were fully organ- 

 ized, and prepared to perform digestion, are destroyed, with 

 the exception of the spur-leaves, which are not sufficient 

 to elaborate the amount of sap necessary to support the 

 necessary functions of the tree ; the number of leaves are 

 diminished to such an extent as to produce a partial de- 

 rangement of those laws which regulate the action in the 

 organs of vegetation. After being cut in this manner, the 

 few remaining eyes receive a stimulus which causes them 

 to grow with great vigor, in order to produce those organs 

 which are so essential to their developement, and which 

 they had already formed, if allowed to remain. 



In about two or three weeks after the first pruning, it 

 will be necessary to go over the trees again, and where 

 they are becoming too crowded thin a few shoots out, by 

 cutting them back within two inches of the base, letting 

 the remainder stand sometime longer, say till the latter end 

 of August, when the fruit will require being exposed to the 

 sun and free influence of light and air; then cut all back 



