PRUNING MADE PLAIN 



which may be pruned as soon as the crop is gathered. 

 As soon as the flowers are past is the best time to carry 

 out the pruning of climbing roses, while bush roses are 

 pruned in late March and early April. Shrubs that 

 bloom on the current year's growth are pruned in early 

 spring, while the pruning of those that bloom on the 

 previous year's shoots is carried out as soon as the flowers 

 are past. 



It may be taken that the certain result of cutting back 

 a shoot is to force dormant buds into growth ; bearing 

 this in mind, the pruner will doubtless exercise care as 

 to the haphazard use of the knife. When a tree is growing 

 vigorously, it is useless to attempt to prevent its doing 

 so by cutting back the strong shoots ; such a practice 

 results in the appearance of still more vigorous growths, 

 which are notoriously shy flowering, and consequently 

 bear poor crops of fruit, and the bother of it is that if 

 they are not checked they so weaken other shoots on the 

 tree as eventually to render it useless. I have seen 

 splendid wall fruit trees ruined in this way. A few gross 

 shoots appeared and were allowed to remain unchecked, 

 or were cut back ; the result was that the lower branches 

 were quickly deprived of vigour and died. 



Pruning the roots is the usual method recommended 

 of curbing the vigorous branch-growths, and if not carried 

 out too drastically so as to cripple the trees, it appears 

 to be the best thing to do. But much may be accom- 

 plished by judicious summer pruning, that is by pinching 



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