1862. 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMEJR. 



85 



Pnming Trees. 



SELECTED. 



The advantage of spring pruning is, that it is 

 a time of leisure with the farmer. The labors 

 of the farmer, at least it March and April, are 

 not pressing him as at some other seasons. The 

 disadvantages are, that the sap is in full circula- 

 tion up the tree. The tree, in all its parts, is 

 filled with sap, and the wood at the wound cannot 

 season. Hence the wood becomes corruptible 

 and readily decays. Any persons who should 

 cut timber at this season, especiilly hard wood, 

 and expect it would season with the b^rk on and 

 become endurable, would be considered out of 

 his senses* The sap vessels are open and will 

 not close. The sap will flow out and run down 

 the tree. The bark will become caLkered, turn 

 black and cleave from the wood. A wound that 

 can never heal will surely be the result. The sap 

 being in brisk circulation up the tree, or waiting 

 to be received by the leaf, and finding itself cut 

 off in its communication, will resort to the recu- 

 perative principle common throughout nature, 

 and will throw out innumerable suckers. In 

 many instances these are suffered to grow, to the 

 great injury, if not destruction of the tree. The 

 tree is destitute of foliage, and the pruner is not 

 quick to note the limbs which should be removed 

 on account of feebleness end decay. 



SUMMKB. PKUNINQ — ADVANTAGES. 



The sap has now ascended the tree, hns pa'^s- 

 ed into the leaves, and has been by them elabo 

 rated. It is descending between the wood and 

 the bark, or in the inner bark, for the formation 

 of fruit and the growth of a new grain of wood. 

 The sap is appropriated, and nature is not pre- 

 pared jor the recuperative process, and throws 

 out but few, if any shoots. The elaborated sap, 

 being »n active operation, may be seen in a few 

 hours oozing from between the bark and wood, 

 ready to commence the healing process. 



It commences quickly and progresses rapidly. 

 When the tree is in full verdure, the farmer may 

 readily observe which of the limbs are diseased 

 and require amputation. He can the more read- 

 ily see what part of the top should be removed, 

 in order to admit the fructifying influences of 

 heat and light. The pruning is very beneficial 

 to the remaining fruit. It causes it to hold, to 

 grow larger and fairer, ana to ripen more per- 

 fectly. 



DISADVANTAGES. 



Farmers are very busily engaged in other farm 

 operations. The bark which is then tender and 

 yielding, may be injured by the heel of the care- 

 less pruner's foot. The sun's more vertical rays 

 may be let in upon tender limbs, in which case 

 they become sun-scalded at those points where 

 the sun's rays fall at right angles from noon un- 

 til two o'clock ; the wound may not season as 

 readily and become as incorruptible as at fall and 

 •winter pruning. 



WINTER AND FALL PRUNING — ADVANTAGES. 



The sap has become quiescent. It has passed 

 up the trunk and limbs, has been elaborated by 

 the leaves ; has returned down the limbs, trunk 

 and roots for the production of fruit, and the for- 

 mation of a new growth of wood. The wood 

 readily seasons and becomes hard, firm and in- 

 corruptible. It will seldrm rot, although large 

 defective limbs are amputated. The sap vessels 

 consequently become closed, and the sap the next 

 spring will not be so forced in that direction as to 

 throw out so many sheots; as though pruned in 

 the spring, neither can the sap flow from the 

 wound. The operation can be performed with- 

 out liability of injury to the bark. The farmer 

 has leisure ; most of his farm operations have 

 ceased necessarily. There is, therefore, time to 

 perform this long neglected service. 



DISADVANTAGES. 



The operator cannot -so quick'y determine the 

 points to be attacked, te dislodge the defective 

 limbs, and to open the top judiciously. The only 

 serious objection to pruning now is, the orchard- 

 ist does not know, con ider, and appreciate the 

 very great advantage and necessity of pruning. 



If the redder has followed the article as closely 

 as the importance of the subject demands, he will 

 now be prepared to strike a balance in favor of 

 summer against spring pruning ; and a large 

 balance i.i favor of fall and winter pruning. 



We have, for many years, noticed thedeleteri- 

 ous effects of spring pruning, arising from a flow 

 of sap. and the multifarious production of suck- 

 ers. We do not mean to say that, as a whole, an 

 orchard had not better be pruned in the spring 

 than never to be pruned. Much depends upon 

 the age and condition of an orchard, as regards 

 the injury of spring pruning, and the great ad- 

 vantage of fall or winter pruning. A young, 

 healthy, and vigorous tree may be pruned in the 

 spring with less detriment than an old, decaying 

 tree. As regards the flowage of sap, the peal- 

 ing operation and the multiplication of suckers, 

 comparing April, May and June, we have had 

 ample experience. The advantage is decidedly 

 and positively in favor of the latter part of this 

 season. As regards the quantity and quality of 

 fruit, from the pruning in April and July, we 

 have had experience to show that the balance is 

 in the same direction. Cole, in his "American 

 Fruit Book," referring to fall pruning, says : — 

 " Thirty years ago, in September, we cut a very 

 large branch from an apple tree. The tree was 

 old, and it hasneyer healed over, but is now hard, 

 almost as hard as horn, and the tree perfectly 

 sound around it. A few years before and after, 

 large limbs were cut from the same tree in spring, 

 and where they were cut off the tree has rotted, 

 so that a quart measure maybe put into the cav- 

 ity." 



<■■ 



As flowers never put on their best clothes for 

 Sunday, but wear their spotless raiment and ex- 

 hale their odor evry day, so let yonr life, free 

 from stain, ever give forth the fragrance of the 

 love of God. 



