262 AMERICAK POMOLOGY. 



an illustration of the principle inyolved in selecting the 

 period for pruning. * 



For the removal of small limbs from young trees, hardly 

 any time can come amiss — better to do. it out of season 

 than to neglect it, and it is a good nile to have a sharp 

 pruning knife always at hand when passing through our 

 young orchards. There is but one time when pruning is 

 absolutely interdicted, and that is when the wood is frozen. 

 When so circumstanced, it should never be cut nor dis- 

 turbed in any manner — not even to gratify your best 

 friend, by helping him to a few grafts from your proved 

 tree of some coveted variety. Let him wait for a thaw, 

 or go away without the grafts, rather than commit such 

 an outrage upon your tree : as to approach it with a knife 

 when frozen. 



While considering the question of the proper season for 

 pruning, there is one axiom of great importance which 

 shoulcTbe firmly impressed upon the mind of the orchard- 

 ist. Much will depend upon which of the two leading 

 objects, above indicated, he may have in view — vigor of 

 growth and B}'mmetry of form, or simply fruitfulness, as 

 the result of his labors in pruning his trees. Pruning at 

 one season will induce the former result, at a different 

 period of the year the same work will conduce to the 

 latter ; hence the postulate Prune in winter for wood; 

 in summer for fruU. 



