PRUNING. 



135 



and that to cut back such plants would be to remove all 

 the flower-buds. With shrubs of this kind, all that need 

 be done is to thin out the branches where they are too 

 crowded. These examples will warn the novice against 

 indiscriminate pruning, and unless as he stands before 

 his shrub or tree, knife in hand, he knows why he is to 

 prune and how, let him put his knife in his pocket, and 

 give the plant the benefit of the doubt. While under 

 the different fruits we can give directions for the partic- 

 ular pruning required by each, the proper method of 

 treating a miscellaneous collection of ornamental shrubs 

 and trees can only be learned by observation. The term 

 pruning is generally applied to the cutting away, in whole 

 or in part, of the ripened wood, but much pruning may 

 be done by the use of the thumb and finger ; this is 

 termed pinching, and is practiced upon young shoots 

 while they are yet soft. This most useful form of prun- 

 ing allows us to control the form of a plant with the 

 greatest ease, and is applied not only to soft-wooded 

 plants, but to trees and shrubs, and may be so performed 

 on these as to render nearly, if not quite, all pruning of 

 ripened wood unnecessary. If a vigorous shoot has its 

 end or "growing point " pinched out it will cease to 

 elongate, but will throw out branches below, the growth 

 of which may be controlled in the same manner; the 

 blackberry illustrates the utility of this kind of pruning ; 

 the rampant growing shoot which springs up from the 

 root will, if left to itself, make a long cane six or eight 

 feet high, and with a very few branches near the top ; if 

 when this shoot has reached four, or at most five feet, 

 its end be pinched off, it will then throw out numerous 

 branches, and if the upper branches, when they reach the 

 length of 18 inches, be " stopped," (as it is called), in a 

 similar manner, by pinching, the growth will be directed 

 to the lower ones, and by the end of the season instead 

 of a long, unmanageable wand, there will be a well- 



