352 



HAEDY FEUIT GARDEN. 



writes : " I hold it good pear-culture to make 

 a practice annually of selecting the shortest- 

 jointed and most mature annual shoots, and 

 tying them down to the principal leaders in the 

 June and July summer-pruning. The old and 

 mechanical spurring system is nearly exploded 

 by this time : it has proved a most fallacious 

 course of practice for centuries, and the gardener 

 who adheres yet tenaciously to it must be much 

 attached to mere prescription. I do not say. 

 Spur not at all. No ; when natural spurs con- 

 tinue to form and advance into blossom-buds, 

 by all means preserve them, but do not entirely 

 rely upon them." The more we prune, the more 

 the trees will grow to wood; the more we cut 

 off the extra supply of food, whether by cir- 

 cumscribed borders, root-pruning, ringing the 

 branches, &o., the more we conduce to fruitful- 

 ness, and the less to the formation of super- 

 fluous wood. Branch-pruning is, therefore, a 

 secondary consideration, unless we do so to in- 

 crease the bulk or model the form of the tree. 



The following opinions bearing on this case 

 deserve the careful consideration of the pomo- 

 logist. " If we take into consideration the 

 physiological fact," says a writer in " The Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle," " that by the agency of 

 leaves the gases extracted from the atmosphere 

 by those organs, and the juices drawn from the 

 earth by the roots, are mixed, assimilated, and 

 rendered subservient to the tree, thereby in- 

 creasing its growth and perfecting its fruit, the 

 question arises. Is summer-pruning beneficial or 

 injurious ? Admitting, then, that the leaves 

 are the agents by which the juices of the tree 

 are prepared to enter into its system, to take 

 part in the various economy of life and the 

 reproduction of its species, it is clear that by 

 removing those leaves we diminish the resources 

 of the tree. Now, in summer-pruning, we re- 

 move at least one-third of the leaves of the tree 

 subjected to the operation; and nature never 

 clothes a tree with more leaves than is neces- 

 sary for its resources at the roots; a proper har- 

 niony is thereby kept up between those two 

 organs, and perfect health of the tree is the 

 result. In summer-pruning we deprive the tree 

 of its digestive organs without at all diminish- 

 ing the absorption at the roots; the juices, con- 

 sequently, not meeting with a proper surface of 

 exposure, which, if no summer-pruning had 

 been performed, they would have done, are re- 

 turned to the tree in a crude and unprepared 

 state ; the wood thereby is not of a natural tex- 

 ture, and the fruit is deprived of its proper 

 flavour. That the over-abundant juices of a 

 tree so treated make a vigorous effort to repair 

 the injury is manifest by the quick appearance 

 of succulency from all parts of the tree, at once 

 establishing the fact that it is overcharged with 

 sap in a crude state. The growth of the tree at 

 that period is not of the character of one slowly 

 and gradually increasing in stature, but a rapid 

 and simultaneous outbreak of the sap from all 

 parts, even where no appearance of buds had 

 previously existed. That trees left untouched 

 till winter-pruning, with a whole summer's 

 growth, are both unsightly and untidy, cannot 

 be denied ; and to leave them in that state to 



be broken by the winds of autumn, would 

 evince carelessness, whatever good intentions 

 there may have been in so doing, and would be 

 highly censurable. But the tree may be ren- 

 dered an object by no means unsightly without 

 cutting away half its branches, as is the com- 

 mon practice : the latter may be stopped, and 

 when practicable secured to the wall, or what-, 

 ever substance they may be trained upon ; and 

 when the period for general pruning comes, all 

 superfluous branches may be removed. As the 

 greater abundance of leaves is at the base of 

 the shoots, the loss in topping, and the occar 

 sional removal of a whole shoot, in comparison 

 to the general practice, would be but trifling." 

 Another writer in the same paper says, " So far 

 as I can judge from my own observations, the 

 summer-pruning of fruit trees is productive of 

 nothing but leaves to the trees and disappoint- 

 ment to their owners. I have pruned at all 

 times, but I can safely say that I never yet saw 

 a blossom-bud upon the spur left for its pro- 

 duction, if the tree was at the same time grow- 

 ing vigorously. It is true that, by root-pruning 

 or ringing the bark, I have made these spurs 

 form blossom-buds, but these practices are not 

 always desirable." " Never cut away a twig in 

 summer," says another authority, " that can by 

 any possibility be got to the wall. Prune freely 

 in the winter, and keep the trees well balanced; 

 nail in at full length all young shoots intended 

 for bearing; keep up a succession of young 

 shoots, to supply the places of those that are 

 worn out and exhausted in bearing, and ring 

 the trees when the growth of them is too luxu- 

 riant." Opposed to these opinions are two 

 other writers in the work last quoted, the first 

 of whom remarks : " Many, however, do not so 

 much deserve blame for pruning as for not 

 pruning. The wall trees in many places grow 

 as they may, and rows of fruit trees in the 

 quarters are never pruned during the summer; 

 all are generally left for the winter-piiming. 

 The luxuriant growth of wood in summer robs 

 the fruit of nourishment, and increases the ex- 

 tension of roots to supply the increased extent 

 of branches in the following season. During 

 winter the knife removes a great portion of the 

 branches, and the equilibrium that nature has 

 established between them and the roots is 

 partly destroyed, and a luxuriance of fruitless 

 branches continues to be produced on account 

 of the increased powers of the roots. I ima- 

 gine that summer-pruning does diminish the 

 absorption at the roots, and that it establishes a 

 uniformity of circulation between roots and 

 branches. There is such a mutual action exist- 

 ing between these, that whatever is done to cur- 

 tail the one will affect the other. A judicious 

 summer -pruning of crowded and luxuriant 

 young shoots will allow a free circulation of 

 air, and the genial influence of the ,sun will 

 better mature the wood that remains; it will 

 also moderate the action of the roots, and the 

 reciprocity between them and the branches will 

 thereby be better established without the neces- 

 sity of pruning much in winter. The use of a 

 strong pair of scissors is all that is necessary for 

 pruning fruit trees in summer, when the wood 



