CHAPTER V. 



PEEKING ITS PRINCIPLES AOT) PRACTICE. 



THIS is one of the most important operations connected 

 with the management of trees. From the removal of the 

 seedling plant from the seed bed, through all its succes- 

 sive stages of growth and maturity, pruning, to some 

 extent, and for some purpose, is necessary. It may, 

 therefore, be reasonably presumed, that no one is capable 

 of managing trees successfully, and especially those con- 

 ducted under certain forms, more or less opposed to 

 nature, without knowing well how to prune, what to prune, 

 and when to prune. This knowledge can only be acquired 

 by a careful study of the structure of trees, because the 

 pruning applied to a tree must (aside from the general 

 principles on which all pruning depends) be adapted to 

 its particular habits of growth and mode of bearing its 

 fruit. It is in view of this fact that the chapter on the 

 structure and mode of formation of the different parts of 

 fruit trees has been given in the first part of this treatise, 

 that it may form the basis of this branch of culture. 



The idea that our bright American sun and clear 

 atmosphere render pruning an almost unnecessary ope- 

 ration, has not only been inculcated by horticultural 

 writers, but has been acted upon in practice- to such an 

 extent that more than three fourths of all the bearing 

 fruit trees in the country, at this moment, are either lean, 

 misshaped skeletons, or the heads are perfect masses of 



