SEASON FOR PRUNING. 



49 



the fruit buds, in bringing them to a proper 

 degree of maturity; for they will be much 

 stronger and bolder, than if it had been de- 

 ferred until spring. Although it is highly 

 advantageous to prune trees (when wood is 

 properly ripened) so early, yet when the 

 wood is green and the buds are not arrived 

 at a mature state, it is requisite in such in- 

 stances to defer pruning until spring, taking 

 care however that it is performed before the 

 moving of the sap. The necessity of this 

 arises from the circumstance, that as the 

 wood is not ripened in autumn, the sap is 

 then in an active state, and will continue 

 so until the frost, &c. causes it to become 

 stagnant or sedate, and if the shoots were 

 shortened whilst the sap was in motion, the 

 buds would be considerably injured, and the 

 tree weakened. Such unripe shoots are also 

 more liable to suffer by the severity of winter, 

 and when the pruning is deferred until spring, 

 all such parts as may have been affected by 

 the weather, can be removed to the extent to 

 which the damage has been sustained. As the 

 pruning of such unripe wood in the autumn 

 would be injurious, so it frequently is when 

 it is done during winter, and the more so, 

 according to the severity of it. Because 

 whenever a cut is made on such green wood, 

 the frost generally affects it, as the sap is not 

 so dense, nor the wood so firm, as to be able 

 to resist its intenseness. For the same reason 



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