PRUNING. 95 



number of these are pyramidal in form, and on pear stocks, 

 very beautiful trees, indeed the best specimens of the kind 

 in any American nursery, and though, now in 1850, only 

 7 years old (the oldest), yet they have as a general thing 

 produced fruit, and many of them for 2 or 3 years past. 

 This result has been obtained by pinching, which has been 

 regularly, but not to the fullest extent, practised upon 

 them every season. The mode of performinc^t, is to pin.ch 

 off the end of the shoot with the finger and thumb ; if a 

 small portion of the remaining part be bruised, no matter, 

 it offers a greater check than if a clean cut were made, 

 as in pruning to a bud ; and in the general winter or 

 spring pruning which follows, the bruised parts can 

 be cleanly separated. The time to perform it depends 

 wholly on circumstances. If the object be to regulate 

 growth, then the time to do it is, when the tendency to 

 undue or ill-proportioned growth is first observable, and 

 this will be from the time the young shoots are two to 

 three inches long and upwards. The particular season of 

 the year or day of the month will, of course, depend upon 

 the earliness or lateness of the season, and on the soil and 

 situation as well as on the habits of growth of the species 

 or variety to be operated on. The true way is to be always 

 on the watch. If the object be to induce fruitfulness, the 

 length which the shoots should attain before being pinched, 

 depends upon the nature or mode of growth and bearing 

 of the species, and will be more definitely treated under 

 the head of "The Pruning of Trees," hereafter, the object 

 now being merely to indicate general principles and modes 

 of operating. To illustrate this, let us suppose the lateral 

 branch of a pear tree, (fig. 83, B\ This was cut back the 

 first time to 5, and below that point five shoots were pro- 

 duced, none of which were needed for branches. We, 

 therefore, pinched them in June, when about three inches 

 long or thereabouts, and the result is, they are now fruit 



