94 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF PRUNING. 



material check in growth, may be useful in improving the 

 shape of tt^i tree. 



As fresh wounds always render trees more liable to be af- 

 fected by intense cold, quite hardy trees only may be pruned 

 any time during winter. On those inclining to be tender the 

 operation should be deferred till toward spring. 



Pruning, as Affecting Fruitfulness. — As a general rule the 

 rapid formation of leaves and wood is adverse to the produc- 

 tion of fruit. On the other hand, the slow growth of the wood 

 favors the formation of fruit-buds and the production of heavy 

 crops. These two adverse tendencies may be more or less 

 controlled by pruning. 



When the too numerous branches of a tree produce more 

 leaves than can be properly supplied with nourishment, re- 

 sulting in a feeble or diminished growth, new vigor may be 

 often imparted by judicious pruning, directing the sap into a 

 smaller number of channels, and thus increasing its force ; for 

 example — peach-trees, after bearing some years and yielding 

 smaller fruit than on fresh young trees, will assume all their 

 former thriftiness by partly cutting-back' the heads. Dwarf 

 pear-trees, which have not been sufficiently manured and cul- 

 tivated, whose pruning has been neglected, and heavy bearing 

 allowed for a number of years, have been restored by severely 

 pruning-back the branches and thinning out the fruit-spurs. 

 In all such operations as these, it is indispensable to observe 

 the rule already given, to do the cutting-back in winter or 

 early in spring, before the buds have swollen. If trees are 

 too thrifty and do not bear, a check may be given, and many 

 fruit-buds produced by a continued pinching-back during 

 summer. 



The production of fruit-buds may be accomplished arti- 

 ficially by checking the growth of vigorous trees ; but such 

 treatment, out of the ordinary course of nature, though some- 

 times useful, should be cautiously applied, as the first crop 

 gives still another check, and often materially injures the tree 

 and the quality of its subsequent crops. 



Summer Pruning.— k.no'Cazx and an unobjectionable mode 

 of attaining the same end, is summer pruning, which is effected 

 by pinching off the soft ends of the side-shoots after they have 

 made a few inches growth. In these the sap immediately ac- 

 cumulates, and a greater or less number of the young buds 



