410 



SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 



Pari II. 



vigor to such plants, it is desirable, when blossoms are wanted in these shrubs, to cut 

 down both old and new wood. 



2131. Pruning for the enlargement of the fruit is effected either by diminishing the 

 number of blossom-bearing branches, or shortening them ; both which operations depend 

 on the nature of the tree : the mode of shortening is particularly applicable to the vine, 

 the raspberry, and to old kernel fruit-trees. 



2132. Pruning for adjusting the stem and branches to the roots is almost solely applica- 

 ble to transplanted trees, in -which it is an essential operation ; and should be performed 

 in general in the interval between removal and replanting, when the plant is entirely 

 out of the ground. Supposing only the extremities of the fibres broken off, as is the 

 case in very small plants and seedlings, then no part of the top will require to be re- 

 moved ; but if the roots have been broken or bruised in any of their main branches or 

 ramifications, then the pruner, estimating the quantity of root of which the plant is 

 deprived by the sections of fracture and other circumstances, peculiar and general, will 

 be able to form a notion of what was the bulk of the whole roots before the tree was 

 undisturbed. Then he may state the question of lessening the top to adjust it to the 

 roots thus : — As the whole quantity of roots which the tree had before removal is to the 

 whole quantity of branches which it now has or had, so is the quantity of roots which it 

 now has to the quantity of top which it ought to have. In selecting the shoots to be re- 

 moved, regard must be had to the ultimate character the tree is to assume, whether a 

 standard, or trained fruit-tree, or ornamental bush. In general, bearing-wood and weak 

 shoots should be removed, and the stronger lateral and upright shoots, with leaf or shoot 

 eyes, left. 



2133. Priming for reneival of the head is perfonned by cutting over the stem a little 

 way, say its own thickness, above the collar or the surface of the ground. This practice 

 appHes to old osier-beds, coppice- woods, and to young forest- trees. Sometimes also it is 

 performed on old or ill-thriving fruit-trees, which are headed down to the top of their 

 stems. This operation is performed vidth the saw, and better after scarification, as in 

 cutting off the broken limb of an animal. The live section should be smootlied with the 

 chisel or knife, "covered with the bark, and coated over with grafting clay, or any conve- 

 nient composition which will resist drought and rain for a year. 



2134. Pruning for curing disease has acquired much celebrity since the time of For- 

 syth, whose amputations and scarifications for the canker, together with the plaster or 

 composition which he employed to protect the wounds from air, are treated of at large 

 in his Treatise on Fruit Trees. Almost all vegetable diseases either have their origin in 

 the weakness of the indi\ddual, or induce a degree of weakness ; hence to amputate a 

 part of a diseased tree is to strengthen the remaining part, because the roots remaining of 

 the same force, the same quantity of sap will be thrown upwards as when the head and 

 branches were entire. If the disease is constitutional, or in the system, this practice 

 may probably, in some cases, communicate to the tree so much strength as to enable it to 

 throw it off ; if it be local, the amputation of the part will at once remove the disease, 

 and strengthen the tree. 



For the removal of diseases, whole branches, the entire head, single shoots, or merely the diseased spot 

 in the bark or wood, may require to be cut off In the removal of merely diseased spots, care must be 

 taken to remove the who'le extent of the part affected with a part of the sound wood and bark ; and, in 

 like manner, in amputating a diseased shoot or branch, a few inches or feet of healthy wood should be 

 taken away at the same time, to make sure of removing every contamination. 



Insects may be removed, or at least prevented from spreading on trained trees, especially such as are 

 in bouses, and on dwarf-trees, where the whole plant comes readily under ^Ije eye, either by cutting off, ~ 

 in the summer season, the young shoots or the individual leaves on which the insects, as the coccus, 

 aphis, acarus, &c. are found. This is frequently practised on gooseberry-plants, and Sir Brook Boothby 

 {,Hort. Trans, vol. i.) asserts that he keeps his peach-frees free from the red spider by cutting off every 

 leaf the moment he sees an insect on it 



2135. Pruning the roots of trees. What effect it would have on the roots of trees, if 

 they could be exposed to view, and subjected to pruning and training, as well as the 

 branches, it is not easy in many cases, to determine ; but where they are diseased, or 

 growing on soil vrith an injurious substratum, could the pruning-knife be applied to their 

 descending and diseased roots annually, the advantages would be considerable. The 

 practice of laying bare the roots of trees to expose them to the frost, and render the tree 

 fruitful, is mentioned by Evelyn and other writers of his time ; but in doing so, it does 

 not appear that pruning was any part of their object. The pruning of roots can therefore 

 only take place, according to the present state of things, in the interval between taking 

 up and replanting ; as such roots are generally small, and some of them broken or in- 

 jui-ed, all that the pruner has to do, is to facilitate the healing of the ends of broken roots 

 by a more perfect amputation ; and in fruit-trees he may shorten such roots as have a 

 tendency to strike too perpendicularly into the soil. The form of the cut in either case 

 is a matter of less consequence than in the shoot ; but like it, it ought in general to be 

 made from the under side of the shoot, that only one section may be fractured, and that 

 the removed section may be the fractured one ; and also that ^vater or sap may rather de- 



