CHAPTER XXIX 



PRUNING MADE PLAIN 



The beginner errs in attempting to apply the practice of 

 pruning before he has mastered the principles. 



PRUNING is an item of gardening work that perplexes the 

 average amateur gardener considerably. He fails to grasp 

 the principles that underlie the practice. It appears 

 to him to be a hopeless business if he realises the import- 

 ance of pruning ; if, as is not infrequent, he makes up 

 his mind to learn pruning as he would shorthand, then 

 he will doubtless prune every kind of plant in more or 

 less the same way, and in the end make a far more grievous 

 mess of things than his fellow amateur who, disheartened 

 by the apparent complexity of the subject, has left pruning 

 alone. Where the beginner errs in pruning, as in so 

 much other gardening work, is in attempting to apply 

 its practice before he has mastered the principles ; in 

 such a case an untoward result is inevitable. If, on the 

 other hand, he were first to learn something of the princi- 

 ples of pruning he would find that the practice came 

 simply enough, and would scarcely need learning at all. 

 The would-be pruner should first of all clearly understand 

 the object for which he prunes and the nature and habit 



207 



