82 TREATISE ON 



strength, or condition of the stock, is not fixed & determined. 2°. Because its purpose 

 varies with the viewpoints of the owners. Some have in mind simultaneously the beauty, 

 endurance, & fecundity of the trees that they prune. They sacrifice some of the latter for 

 the benefit of long-term enjoyment & visual satisfaction offered by the fullness, balance, 

 breadth, & uniform proportions of a well pruned tree, even during the most unrewarding 

 of seasons. Others find that the most misshapen tree is beautiful as long as it's quite full 

 of fruit. Content with this end, they prefer a few years of plenty to a long series of years 

 with mediocre yield. 3°. Because the natural growth & development of branches often is 

 upset by disease, inclement weather, deterioration of the roots, a variety of accidents, & 

 many unknown causes that produce changes & disruptions that the greatest of intellects 

 couldn't predict & that the totality of knowledge & experience rarely can prevent or 

 remedy. So we can state generally that vigorous trees must be pruned long & weak ones 

 pruned short; that pruning its large branches long & filling it in with small ones maintains 

 a vigorous tree, but sometimes clutters it up; it ruins a weak tree. Pruning large branches 

 long & thinning out some of the small ones neither will restrain a vigorous tree nor make 

 it bear fruit; it exhausts & lays bare a weak tree. Pruning big branches short & filling out 

 the small ones can hold back a vigorous tree & exhausts a weak tree. Pruning big 

 branches short & thinning out small ones ruins a vigorous tree through the roots or 

 through the growth of suckers & false wood, but it keeps a weak tree in good condition, 

 &c. But it would be fruitless for us to undertake a tedious account of an almost infinite 

 variety of individual cases. Some of these can be determined only in the context of the 

 tree's condition that of necessity must be known & directly observed, 



