THE PRUNING OF THE APPLE-TREE 37 



processes of decay, the ground would be strewn with the 

 fallen parts accumulating through the years. 



In nature, the great result is to yield abundant quan- 

 tity of seeds, that the species may propagate itself after 

 its kind. Man may desire fruits relatively few, but large 

 of size and excellent of quality, without spot or blemish ; 

 this means greater opportunity and care to the single 

 fruit. Pruning is essential, to converge the energy of the 

 plant into fewer branches, to give the fruits space and 

 light, to increase the efficiency of measures for the con- 

 trol of diseases and insects. Part of the pruning con- 

 sists in removing certain branches, and part of it in elim- 

 inating the fruits themselves by the careful process of 

 thinning. 



The pruning of nature is fortuitous. The tree has 

 the irregularity and abandon of the picturesque. The 

 pruning of man is for a different end, and it produces the 

 comely well-proportioned tree of the orchards. The tree 

 becomes a manipulated subject, comforting to the eye of 

 the thrifty pomologist. 



Branch-pruning is essentially the removal of super- 

 fluous branches, — those that crowd, that cross each other, 

 that are so placed as to be profitless, that are in the way, 

 that are injured or diseased. For the most part, the 

 branches should be removed when they are small ; but 

 it is not possible to foresee all that may be needed in the 

 training of the tree and, therefore, the frequent advice to 

 prune only with a hand-knife cannot be followed. One 

 needs a sharp pruning-saw and sometimes a chisel on a 

 long handle. Usually it is not necessary to remove 

 branches more than an inch or one and one-half inch in 

 diameter if pruning is carefully practiced every year ; but 



