TUF. PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



[Apr. 



ticularly wlien they shed the greater part of tlieir fruit ; but 

 nature is tlius relieved, and that health restored or preserved, 

 which, if the fruit had not fallen, would in many cases have 

 rendered the tree for some years unfit for future crops, and 

 probably deprived it of life altogether. Trees more strong and 

 luxuriant than may be desirable, may be allowed to carry 

 a greater crop to exhaust themselves to a certiiin degree, and 

 thereby acquire habits of more moderate growth, which will be 

 more likely to continue them in a regular fruitful state for years, 

 than if allowed to continue in a gross state of growth. This 

 cannot be effected by pruning away the shoots, as in that case 

 it would only tend to produce greater luxuriance. Laying in 

 more wood, pruning little, and taking larger crops off them 

 than off' such as are of less gross habits, will corrrcct this 

 habit of luxuriance in most trees. 



The trees should be now disbudded or divested of all su- 

 perfluous wood, leaving only such as will be really required to 

 be laid in for the next year's crop. This early pruning will 

 materially contribute to the health of the trees, and enable 

 them to make such wood as will be productive of future crops, 

 and give every chance of producing in high perfection the crops 

 of the present year. This practice of disbudding is too little 

 attended to by many gardeners, from a mistaken fear of taking 

 too many oft'; but it is much better to have a few fine healthy 

 shoots than to have the trees crowded with a vast number of 

 meagre shoots not thicker than straws, and which will require 

 to be cut out in the winter pruning, being unripened and weak, 

 and all this at a considerable sacrifice of the strength of the 

 trees. Those shoots which are selected to remain, should be 

 neatly and regularly laid in to the trellis, and this should be 

 )done as they advance, to prevent them being broken by the 

 effects of watering, or other accidents, besides giving tlie trees 

 a much better appearance. In tying those branches to the 

 trellis, care should be taken not to tie them too tight, but to 

 allow as much room between the shoot and the matting as 

 would admit of another shoot of the same size along with it. 

 If this be not attended to, the shoot swelling in size will be 

 confined tor want of sufficient room, and the consequence will 

 be, that the shoot will be cut almost through, and lay the 



