456 HemarJcs and Observatio7is suggested 



endeavour, by giving extent to the tree, and not making tlie 

 border too rich, to keep up a healthful, not too luxuriant, state of 

 growth. To prune away vast quantities of young wood every 

 year, is only to encourage more in the next. We should en- 

 deavour, by laying in as many of the shortest lateral branches 

 as we can, to get as many fruiting natural spurs as possible, 

 which are far preferable to large forced ones ; the fruit is better, 

 and we may also have the quantity greater than when the trees 

 are managed with long spurs and naked branches ; and when 

 the tree has good crops of fruit, it checks the too luxuriant 

 growth of wood. All pruning is best done when the living 

 principle is in action, the wound is then easily healed ; if done in 

 winter, the shoot will generally be found to die back a few joints, 

 which it would not do if in a growing state. Hedges should be 

 pruned before the growth stops, and when cut over should be 

 done after growth has commenced, to give the wounds the ad- 

 vantage of growth to heal them. Dr. Lindley illustrates the use 

 of early autumn-pruning in the vine^ by the quantity of sap col- 

 lected in winter- being distributed among the shoots left, and not 

 partly also among those cut off. It is customary to cut vines 

 and other fruit trees after they are fully ripened ; but if it could 

 be convenient to cut them rather before the fall of the leaf, it 

 would skin the wound over and prevent bleeding. Much of the 

 necessity of pruning, or forbearing to prune, depends on the 

 nature of the fruit tree : some sorts that bear freely are the 

 better of a good deal of pruning, to keep the tree vigorous, and 

 the fruit better in quality, as gooseberries, &c. ; others, that grow 

 naturally too much to wood, and are longer in fruiting, should be 

 allowed to extend till nature has exhausted itself, and the tree be- 

 gins to come to maturity, when small well-ripened fruitful shoots 

 are the consequence. Such trees should not have the soil made 

 rich, to encourage their growth too much ; but it is better to 

 give the tree room to extend itself if possible, than to force it 

 into precocity by unnatural means ; the tree is then apt to get 

 unhealthy, and the fruit is never so fine in quality. Provided 

 we could command heat and light in sufficient quantity to ripen 

 the wood, we might make our borders rich ; but as long as 

 these are limited, so also must the food be limited : for healthy 

 vigorous-growing trees, it only retards their maturity to furnish 

 the roots with rich compost. Depressing the branches by 

 checking the upward flow of sap, and causing less quantity to 

 be sent to the bended shoot, checks its growth, and hence is a 

 good means of balancing the growth of a tree, when one side is 

 more luxuriant than the other; it also encourages the formation 

 of flower buds. Bruising or pinching the end of the shoot, by the 

 check it gives from the wound produced, and stopping the 

 leading of the shoot, will have the same effect. Depressing is 



