OF PRUNING. 241 



When a portion of a healthy plant is cut off, all 

 that sap which would have been expended in sup- 

 porting the part removed is directed into the parts 

 which remain, and more especially into those in the 

 immediate vicinity of it. Thus, if the leading bud of 

 a growling branch is stopped, the lateral buds, which 

 would otherwise have been dormant, are made to sprout 

 forth ; and, if a growing branch is shortened, then 

 the very lowest buds, which seldom push, are brought 

 into action : hence the necessity, in pruning, of cut- 

 ting a useless branch clean out ; otherwise the remo- 

 val of one branch is only the cause of the production 

 of a great many others. This effect of stopping does 

 not always take place immediately; sometimes its 

 first effect is to cause an accumulation of sap in a 

 branch, which directs itself to the remaining buds, 

 and organises them against a future year. In ordi- 

 nary cases, it is thus that spurs or short bearing- 

 branches are obtained in great abundance. The 

 growers of the Filbert, in Kent, procure in this way 

 greater quantities of bearing wood than nature unas- 

 sisted would produce ; for, as the filbert is always 

 borne by the wood of a previous year, it is desirable 

 that every bush should have as much of that wood as 

 can be obtained, for which everything else may be 

 sacrificed ; and such wood is readily secured by 

 observing a continual system of shortening a young 

 branch by two thirds, the effect of which is to call 

 all its lower buds into growth the succeeding year ; 

 and thus each shoot of bearing wood is compelled to 

 produce many others. The Peach, by a somewhat 



11 



