18 PRUNING OP FRUIT TREES. 



PEUNING OF FEUIT TEEES. 



Wlieii is tlie best time for pruning fruit trees, is a question 

 often asked, to whicli the reply of an old gardener was more 

 appropriate than polite, who answered " whenever your knife is 

 sharp." If firait trees are properly attended to and pruned every 

 year as much as is requisite, they wUl need hut very little 

 pruning at any time, and, it is not of much moment when that 

 little is done. The words of the lamented Downing should he 

 graven upon the memory of every one who takes knife in hand 

 against his fruit trees. He says, "A judicious pruniag, to modify 

 the form of our standard trees, is nearly all that is required in 

 ordinary practice. Every fniit tree, grown iu the open orchard 

 or garden as a common standard, should he allowed to take its 

 natural form, the whole efforts of the pruner going no further 

 than to take out all weak and crowded hranches, those which are 

 fining uselessly the interior of the tree, where their leaves cannot 

 he duly exposed to the light and sun, or those which interfere 

 with the growth of others. All pruning of large tranches in 

 healthy trees should be rendered unnecessary, hy examining them 

 every season, and taking out superfluous shoots while they are 

 small." 



Yet there is a hest time for pruning, and that time depends 

 upon the ohject for which the pruning is done. The two pur- 

 poses most commonly intended are all that it will he necessary 

 here to speak of, namely, pruning to regulate the form of standard 

 trees, and pruning to induce fruitfulness. 



In PRUNING TO REGULATE THE FORM of standard trees, if 

 the trees have heen properly cared for every year, it wiU only he 

 necessary to remove small hranches, and this may he hest done 

 in our climate after the severe frosty weather of our winters is 

 passed, and hefore the sap is in full flow. This will he in March 

 or early in April, varying with the season and locality. K done 

 at this time, the sap will not have fully ascended into the branch 

 that is taken away, and wiU he directed into the remaining por- 



