JAN.] PRUNING WALL-TREES. 187 



Of pruning Fruit-Trees. 



The operation of pruning many kinds of fruit- 

 trees may go forward in this month, if the weather 

 be moderate ; that is, if it be so moderate as that a 

 man can stand to prune ; for, in that case, if we 

 except the % and the vine, as will be more parti- 

 cularly noticed below, few kinds will sustain injury. 

 Indeed, if we except these, we may safely prune most 

 fruit-trees at any time in the year. 



Of pruning Apples and Pears on Walls and Es- 

 paliers. 



Apples and pears being similar in their manner 

 of bearing, that is, producing their fruit on short 

 stubs or spurs, which issue chiefly from the sides, 

 though sometimes from the ends of the branches, 

 one mode of treatment, in respect to pruning and 

 training, will answer for both. On w r alls of more 

 than six feet in height, fan-training is to be prefer- 

 red to horizontal training ; that is, spreading the 

 branches out like a fan, or like the hand fully open- 

 ed and extended, instead of carrying a principal 

 stem upright, and laying the branches from it, in a 

 horizontal direction on either side. My reason for 

 giving this preference is, that, by the first method, 

 a tree can be made to fill its allotted place sooner 

 by half the time, and the loss of a branch can be 

 supplied with greater facility, at any period of its 

 age, than by the last method. But for trees on very 

 low walls and espaliers, the horizontal method may 

 be practised with greater propriety ; as they cam 



