CHAPTER XIII. 



— 4— 

 ON PRUNING. 



" La taille est une ides operations les plus importantes et les 

 plus delicates du jardinage. Coniiee communement a des 

 ouvriers peu instruits, observ6e dans les r6sultats d'une 

 pratique trop souvent irrefl^chie, elle a du necessairement trou- 

 ver des d^tracteurs meme parmi les physiologistes. II en eut 

 sans doute et^ autrement, si on I'avait ^tudi^e dans les jardins 

 du petit nombre de praticiens qui ont su de nos jours la bien 

 comprendre. Sagement basee sur les lois de la v6g6tation, elle 

 contribue, entre leurs mains, non seulement a regulariser la 

 production des fruits, a en obtenir de plus beaux, mais encore 

 a prolonger 1' existence et la f6condit6 des arbres." 



Nothing can be more just than these words, addressed to the 

 Horticultural Society of Paris, by their President, M. Hericarl 

 de Thury ; and, if they do not apply with as much force to our 

 gardeners as to those of France, they do most fdly to our 

 foresters. 



The quantity of timber that a tree forms, the amount and 

 quality of its secretions, the brilliancy of its colours, the size of 

 its flowers, and, ia short, its whole beauty, depend upon the 

 action of its branches and leaves, and their healthiness. The 

 object of the pruner is to diminish the number of leaves and } 

 branches ; whence it may be at once understood how delicate 

 are the operations he has to practice, and how thorough a 

 inowledge he ought to possess of all the laws which regulate 

 the action of the organs of vegetation. If well directed, 

 pruning is one of the most useful, and, if ill-directed, it is 





