POMOLOGY, GARDENING, FORESTRY, HORTICULTURE, RURAL ARCHITEOTURE, BEES. 



Vol. II. Des Moines, Iowa; Leavenworth, Kan., Mar., 1871. 



No. 



MARK MILLER, 

 Editor and Publisher, - - Des Moines, Iowa. 



DR. J. STAYMAN, 

 Atsociaie Editor, - - Leavenworth, Kansas. 



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Shonid Trees be Pruned 1 Article 3. 



By the Associate Editob. 



Having in our former article briefly considered 

 the leading functions of vegetable life, and the rela- 

 tion they hold to each other and external objects, 

 we shall now contemplate the application of those 

 principles in practice. 



As every plant has a particular form and growth 

 endowed upon it by nature, and the iiids and foliage 

 control its growth, they should be preserved unmo- 

 lested, that they can perform their duty. 



We must admit that nature has endowed every 

 plant with a particular form of growth, which is nec- 

 essary to its health, longevity and productiveness ; 

 else nature is a failure in impressing it with pecu- 

 liarities which arc inimical to its existence. This 

 conclusion we cannot admit, for vegetable life has 

 had a primary existence and fulfilled its functions 

 independent of man. 



Therefore the pruning of a tree is inexpedient 



because it'has a restraining influence and changes its 

 natural form and growth to that of the caprice of 

 man. Restraining the sphere of vegetable action 

 by whatever process has a deliterious tendency and 

 hasten its destruction. Consequently pruning 

 should be used only as a remedial agent in disea.se in 

 overcoming injuries and removing unnatural ob- 

 structions and deformities ; instead of pruning in 

 health for form, vigor, lieaUh, productiveness and 

 transplanting. If seeds are planted in open space 

 with free access of light and air in congenial soil, 

 they will grow and the plants will assume their 

 natural form, and grow stocky without the pi-unitig 

 knife, and have a fine, lively green color and be 

 healthy ; and if properly transplanted and placed 

 under proper cultivation and congenial influences, 

 they will arrive at maturity at a specific period in 

 harmony with their nature, and be healthy and live 

 to a long old age. But if planted in a thicket they 

 will grow slender, and if cut back to make them 

 grow stocky it not only checks their growth, but 

 deprives them of the ability to make growth by 

 destroying their absorbing surface , and if the prac- 

 tice is often repeated they loose their clilorophyU 

 and become pale, sickly and soon die. If we 

 shorten in or prune a tree at transplanting, we rob 

 it of its buds, which are the germs of life, and in 

 that proportion retard its growing, and prolong its 

 evaporation, and hasten its destruction The buds 

 are not only the vital principle, but the terminal 

 Inidi are essentially necessary ; for without them 

 the tree cannot grow until new terminal buds are 

 formed, because within them are stored up the devel- 

 loped and matured matter and vital principle, which 

 burst forth into activity at the first dawn of spring, 

 by the electrical and vivifying influence of the sun. 

 If these buds are destroyed it is like a pump without 

 a valve, or a conductor without a connection, for 

 the tree is cut off from the moisture of the earth 

 and the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, and left 

 standing like a green stick drying up by evapora- 

 tion. That, the terminal buds are the first to start 

 into active growth early in the spring can be veri- 



