CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTION 



1. Pruning defined. — Pruning is the horticultural 

 process of cutting off excess or undesirable li\ing, 

 dying or dead branches, twigs, roots or other plant parts, 

 especially of fruit trees, vines and shrubs, to benefit the 

 parts that remain. It naturally divides into three classes, 

 dependent upon the aim of the pruner; namely : 1, prun- 

 ing for profit, as in the case of fruit trees and bushes, the 

 object being to secure finer or more specimens ; 2, pruning 

 for ornament, in which case the form of the specimen is 

 altered for a real or a fancied improvement; 3, pruning to 

 save the life of the specimen — repair pruning or tree 

 surgery, as it is today popularly called. In the present 

 volume the main object is pruning for profit, but the 

 principles and the practice underlying the other two 

 classes are discussed, so the reader may have a good gen- 

 eral or working knowledge of each. 



The practice, which is as old as human history, is re- 

 ferred to specificall)' in Leviticus (xxv, 3, 4), in which 

 the children of Israel are told to prune their vineyards and 

 gather the fruit during six years, but in the seventh year 

 to let the vines go unpruned. In five other passages in 

 the old Testament figurative reference is also made to 

 pruning and "pruning hooks." In spite of the ancient 

 origin of the practices and the efforts of many in^•esti- 

 gators during the intervening centuries, we have by no 

 means reached the limit of knowledge, but can claim to 

 have discovered and demonstrated only a few important 

 principles and useful practices. These are, however, 

 understood by comparatively few of the people who grow 

 plants, and even by many of the self-called pruning ex- 



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