OF PRUNING. 



247 



whicli make their appearance at a later part of the 

 year. 



The season for pruning is usually midwinter, or at 

 midsummer ; the latter for the purpose of removing 

 new superfluous branches, the former for thinning and 

 arranging the several parts of a tree. It is, however, 

 the practice, occasionally, to perform what is called 

 the winter pruning early in the autumn, as in the case 

 of the Gooseberry, and of the Vine when weak ; and 

 the effect is found to be, that the shoots of such plants, 

 in the succeeding season, are stronger than they would 

 have been had the pruning been performed at a much 

 later season. This is necessarily so, as a little reflec- 

 tion will show. During the season of rest (winter) a 

 plant continues to absorb food solely from the earth by 

 its roots (31) ; and, if its branches 

 are unpruned, the sap thus and then 

 introduced into the system will be 

 distributed equally all through it ; let 

 us say from b to c d and e in the 

 accompanying diagram. If late pru- 

 ning is had recourse to, and the 

 branches from atocd and e are re- 

 moved, of course a large proportion 

 of the sap that has been accumulat- 

 ing during the winter will be thrown 

 away, and & to c will retain no more 

 of it than the exact proportion which 

 that part bears to the part abstracted. 

 When, however, early or autumnal pruning is employ- 

 ed, a to c d and e are removed, before the sap has 



