50 



SEASON FOR PRUNING. 



I alwaj^s leave the pruning of Fig and Mul- 

 berry trees until spring. 



The superiority of spring pruning to that 

 of autumn, is by the advocates of the former 

 grounded upon this, i. e. that it may more 

 certainly be discovered where a shoot will 

 be produced for a lead the ensuing summer; 

 and thus far it is correct, but if attention be 

 paid to the obtaining wood to a proper state 

 of maturity, and in the pruning of each kind 

 agreeably to the instructions contained in 

 this work, this object may always be secured 

 unless some accident prevent it, and gene- 

 rally with more certainty than by a spring 

 pruning. For at that advanced season, the 

 buds are very brittle, and frequently many 

 are rubbed off or bruised in the operation. 

 I have noticed some persons prune Peach 

 and Nectarine trees that were in a bearing 

 condition, as late as April, when the bloom 

 buds were just bursting; the effects that 

 followed such a system were in numerous in- 

 stances very evident, for soon after the blos- 

 soms had expanded, many of those situated 

 nearest to the end of the shoots withered and 

 dropped off, and the tree was also consider- 

 ably weakened. Such a method of checking 

 luxuriancy is used by many persons, but I 

 never practice it, adopting other means for 

 the attainment of that object. (See treatment 

 of vigorous trees.) Young trees I uniformly 

 prune at spring for the first two years after 



