PETJOTNG AND TEAINING. 



123 



wall, and vines upon a trellis, are made to develop their 

 wood with symmetry and regularity, and occupy usefully 

 the whole surface they were designed to cover. 



2d. — By pruning, all the main branches of the tree are 

 furnished with fruit hearing branches duly exposed to air 

 and light in their whole extent. An unpruned peach tree 

 will produce fruit only at the extremity of each branch, 

 but by pruning, all parts of the tree are made fruitful. 



3d. — By pruning, fructification is made more equal. 

 By suppressing each year the superabundant flower-buds, 

 and thinning the branches themselves, one preserves for 

 the formation of new flower-buds for the following year 

 the sap which would have been absorbed by the parts re- 

 moved. 



4th. — Finally, pruning renders the fruit larger, and of 

 better quality. A large part of those nourishing fluids 

 which would have supplied the suppressed parts, are turned 

 to the benefit of the fruit on the remaining branches. 



Lindley adds that the time in which a fruit ripens may 

 be changed by skillful pruning. If raspberry canes are 

 cut down to three eyes in the spring, a late summer or 

 autumn crop will be produced. By removing the flower- 

 buds of remontant roses, fine autumn blooms are obtained. 



Time for Priming. — Pruning is performed at two pe- 

 riods during the year. Winter pruning is that given to 

 trees while vegetation is in repose, and summer pruning 

 includes all that a tree or plant receives in its stages of 

 active growth. 



Winter Pruning. — This may be performed at the South 

 directly after the fall of the leaf, and in mild weather 

 through the winter months, until vegetation is about to 

 commence ; at the North, from the time the severe frosts 

 are over, until the sap begins to move, that is, in Febru- 

 ary and March. If pruned before the heavy frosts, the 

 cut, being exposed to their severity, does not heal readily, 



