CHAPTER IX. 

 THE PRUNING OF PLANTS. 



The pruning of plants is an important as well as an 

 interesting operation. It may be defined as the process of 

 cutting off excess or undesirable wood. Small and large 

 branches, roots, or twigs are removed so that the remaining 

 parts are benefited. Pruning requires knowledge, experience 

 and judgment, and when properly performed, produces a 

 tree that is symmetrical in shape. Plants properly pruned 

 will bear excellent fruit, because the plant food is used in 

 fewer branches and therefore the plant can grow better fruit. 



Plants of different kinds must be pruned differently. 

 Likewise young plants must be pruned in a different manner 

 than old and mature plants. Young trees one year old are 

 pruned differently than five-year-old or twenty-year-old 

 trees. Vines are pruned unlike the bush fruits, and the 

 brambles, such as blackberries and the raspberries, are pruned 

 differently than the peach or the pear tree. So then after 

 analyzing pruning in a brief way we are led to assume that 

 all plants must be pruned in a manner determined by the 

 plant, and also that the methods must be varied as the plant 

 grows older. The pruning of a plant might be roughly divided 

 into three groups: (1) pruning to save the life of a plant, (2) 

 pruning for profit, and (3) pruning for ornament. 



Principles of Pruning. — There are certain principles in 

 the pruning of any plant that are identical, because prun- 

 ing is simply an operation on the plant. It consists of 

 removing a certain amount or a part of the plant body. The 

 nature of animal life is to heal any cut or wound on its body, 

 and it is also the nature of a plant to heal any wound made 

 on it. However, a wound made by removing a limb on a 

 plant is different from the cutting off of a piece of the bark 

 on the trunk, which might be similar to an animal wound. 

 Consequently a few principles in removing a branch must be 



