PRUNING AND TRAINING. 



391 



by some as being injurious, and causing a dry- 

 iilg and hardening of a portion of the wood close 

 to the part cut, and hence the granulous matter 

 does not so easily protrude between the bark 

 and the wood as when the trees are furnished 

 with sap. Hence, say they, all pruning of fruit 

 trees should be performed at the period at 

 which the rising of the sap takes place. We 

 should, however, observe that the vine is an 

 exception to this rule. " To prune in autumn 

 strengthens a plant, and will bring the blossom- 

 buds more forward ; to cut the wood late in 

 spring tends to check a plant, and is one of the 

 remedies for over-luxuriance. At the opening 

 of spring, the blossom-buds can be certainly 

 distinguished, which is a great guide to the 

 judgment in many critical cases ; but on the 

 other hand, if the blossom buds get much 

 swelled, they are liable to get bruised or knocked 

 off, in the various operations of untacking, cut- 

 ting, and re-nailing the branches. Supposing 

 the winter course of pruning to be divided into 

 three periods — autumn, the cold months of win- 

 ter, and the beginning of spring- — the plants to 

 be excepted from the two first are uniformly 

 the fig, when not in a forcing-house ; the vine, 

 for the most part, because the autumn is sel- 

 dom hot and fine sufficiently long to ripen the 

 year's shoots. Some except the peach and nec- 

 tarine from the middle period, but not from 

 the first ; because, they say, if a severe frost 

 happen immediately after the pruning, the 

 points of the unripened shoots, and particularly 

 the wood-bud next to the cut, are generally so 

 much hurt that there must be a second shorten- 

 ing farther in than was intended, to furnish 

 those shoots with leaders." — Encyclopaedia of 

 Gardening. Theoretically speaking, autumn, 

 soon after the fall of the leaf, is the best season 

 for pruning, when the object is to promote 

 strength in the tree ; and next to this, winter, 

 performing the operation in mild weather : for 

 until the soil becomes lowered in temperature, 

 the roots are collecting a certain stock of nutri- 

 ment, which they will throw into the branches 

 retained after pruning; whereas, if the pruning 

 be deferred till spring, all the nourishment 

 which has been taken up by the rejected 

 branches will be lost in consequence of their 

 removal. 



Dr Lindley, in reference to this subject, gives 

 the following reasons why pruning in early 

 autumn should have this effect : " During the 

 i sea son of frost (winter) a plant 



: °* continues to absorb food solely 



d from the earth by its roots ; and 



if its branches are unpruned, 

 ? the sap thus and then introduced 

 \ / into the system will be distri- 

 \y / buted equally all thiough it, let 

 ^ us say (as in fig. 150) from b to 



c d, and e. If late pruning is 

 a ■ had recourse to, and the branch- 



es from a to c, d, and e are re- 

 moved, of course a large propor- 

 tion of the sap that has been ac- 

 £ cumulating during the winter 



distribution w ^ ^ e thrown away, and b to c 

 of sap. will retain no more of it than the 



exact proportion which that part bears to the part 

 abstracted. When, however, early or autumnal 

 pruning is employed, a to c, d, and e are re- 

 moved before the sap has accumulated in them, 

 and then all which the roots are capable of col- 

 lecting during the period of repose will be de- 

 posited in the space from 6 to a, and conse- 

 quently branches from that part will necessarily 

 push with excessive vigour." — Theory of Horti- 

 culture, p. 259. 



Winter pruning. — Some trees may, un- 

 doubtedly, be operated upon during the month 

 of October, and some ought to be so even 

 sooner, as in the case of the raspberry, the old 

 wood of which should be removed as soon as 

 the fruit is gathered, because whatever amount 

 of food such wood may draw from the roots 

 after that time, is so much unnecessarily drawn 

 from the soil : besides, its removal admits more 

 light and air to the young wood left, on which 

 the succeeding crop depends. Trees which are 

 weakly, and such as have their wood well 

 ripened, may also be pruned thus early. Yet 

 for the generality of fruit trees and bushes, the 

 beginning of November is a good time (and this 

 even depends a good deal on the locality, as to 

 whether it be early or late) ; and the process 

 may extend over the following three months. 

 Early pruning has, however, like early autumnal 

 planting, its advantages — the principal of which 

 is, that the wounds may begin to heal up before 

 severe frosts set in. Cultivators, for conveni- 

 ence, often defer this operation till the frost is 

 too severe for operating upon the soil ; and to 

 this too many are driven, from not having a 

 sufficient number of men to do everything in 

 its proper season. Hardy trees and shrubs 

 may, with few exceptions, be pruned during 

 autumn and winter ; but such as are tender 

 should be left till spring, as, besides the injury 

 which may be done them by frost, in conse- 

 quence of their wounds not being healed, many 

 of their branches may be killed or injured dur- 

 ing winter ; and the extent of this cannot be 

 ascertained till even late in spring, and after 

 they have begun to grow. Tea-scented and all 

 similar tender roses offer examples of this. 



Summer-pruning fruit trees. — Could this ope- 

 ration be dispensed with, and rendered unneces- 

 sary by root - pruning, limiting the supply of 

 food, and attention to training, it would be 

 most desirable. While, however, rich, deep, 

 and broad borders are indulged in, there can be 

 little hope of this being secured. To plant in 

 rich borders and deep soils has as great a ten- 

 dency to increase the size of the rubbish-heap 

 as the size or quantity of the fruit. A continu- 

 ance of this practice will produce those annual 

 crops of breastwood which must be removed 

 and consigned to the faggot-pile, for removed 

 they must assuredly be to prevent a general 

 barrenness. 



It is worth while to inquire when and liow this 

 is to be best accomplished, and it is equally 

 worth while to study how their formation may 

 be, if not entirely, at least in a great measure 

 prevented. 



Bearing on this point, we find Mr Errington, 

 in " Journal of the Horticultural Society," thus 



