hy Lindlei/s Theory of Horticulture. 455 



shoot must be cut down to within a few joints of the bottom ; the 

 buds below will start with great force and vigour, and, the living 

 principle being more active, the branch so managed will be 

 found to have produced, at the end of the season, a great deal 

 more foliage and wood than a shoot not headed down : this is 

 called pruning for wood, and must be done judiciously ; if large 

 arms are removed, the food taken away by a large branch may 

 be more loss than the greater activity of the growth will make 

 up for. In pruning for wood, it is best to cut young shoots ; in 

 old branches the buds have become sunk and latent, sometimes 

 they do not start at all, or, if they do, it is more feeble than the 

 lowermost buds on young shoots; and much of the success de- 

 pends on the force and stimulus given to the vital principle. In 

 pruning roots, a young fibre of a root, if pruned judiciously 

 when in a dormant state, will from the same cause produce more 

 young fibres in the ensuing season, than if left unpruned : and 

 hence the reason of nurserymen pruning the roots of their young 

 trees; it increases the quantity of fibres, the plant has more 

 sources of nourishment, and is more easily transplanted. When 

 a stock, planted out for budding or grafting, is pruned in the 

 roots, and the young shoot headed down, the plant starts with 

 great vigour, and there is far more chance of the buds and grafts 

 succeeding; when the fruit tree is headed down and kept lull of 

 young wood, it is far more manageable, and the plant will not sell 

 unless the wood and bark are young and vigorous. If large arms 

 of the roots are removed, the young fibres do not start so freely 

 from old as from young roots ; the quantity of small fibres removed 

 is more than can be compensated for a time by the new roots 

 formed, and the consequence is a check to the growth of the 

 tree, which causes it to furnish less sap to the branches ; and 

 this smaller quantity being more easily elaborated, the more 

 perfect state of flower buds is produced, and the tree becomes 

 precociously fruitful, and less vigorous. In pruning the young 

 wood for fruit, the shoots should be left long and but little 

 shortened, and not starting so strongly as from the lower buds 

 when cut for wood, the smaller quantity of sap attracted is 

 better elaborated, and fruit buds are more likely to be formed. 

 In roses and other plants that flower in the wood of the present 

 year's growth, if the young shoots are cut down to within a 

 bud or two of the bottom, and the plant vigorous, we are more 

 likely to have wood than flowers or fruit ; if left very long, we 

 are likely to have too much flower, and little wood, and the 

 plant becomes unhealthy : the same applies to vines. In plants 

 that bear on the one-year-old wood we must cut so as to have 

 plenty of young wood ; in peaches that are too vigorous, we 

 must cut less, and endeavour to produce fruit, which is the best 

 check on wood. In trees that bear on the older wood, we must 



