40 On a Successful Mode of treating Fruit Trees. 



the fierce application of the pruning knife, that cutting and 

 maiming of the tree, the indiscriminate destruction of its 

 great limbs, has not something unnatural in it. Those vio- 

 lent operations must, in some measure, derange, or unsettle, 

 the organization of the plant. The sap, being deprived of 

 its natural channels, must irregularly make way for its over- 

 flow, and spend itself in the production of new branches, 

 instead of being employed in the formation of fruit. Art 

 seems to have outstepped the line prescribed to it : for 

 though it may advantageously assist nature, yet it should not 

 be carried so far, as to appear in direct opposition to it, and 

 to violate those laws, upon the observation of which success 

 must depend. On these principles Mr. Harrison seems to 

 act, and the result of his labours proves the correctness of 

 the reasoning. The great branches, by claiming a consider- 

 able portion of nourishment, have the effect of moderating 

 the sap, which circumstance is conducive to fruitfulness ; and, 

 at the same time, they serve as a basis to numerous small 

 shoots, calculated for bearing fruit buds. The short pruning 

 of these shoots, while it gives strength to the buds, which 

 are suffered to remain, tends to form good young wood, that 

 may be turned to account, in subsequent years. Trees, so 

 managed, seem to thrive in health and vigour, and to make an 

 ample return for the attention bestowed upon them. Every 

 part appears to be productive, while no barren and luxuriant 

 excrescences, nor water shoots, or useless twigs, are to be 

 seen ; and those expedients, which in other cases are resorted 

 to, to modify the course of the sap, are not wanted, under cir- 

 cumstances like the foregoing. 



So much was to be said about the pruning of the Peach 



