PRUNING. 



337 



On the other hand, trees which are in particular situations, where it is 

 feared they will grow too large, may be arrested in their growth, or stunted 

 by amputating the larger roots. 



754. For ornamental trees pruning is chiefly employed to remove 

 diseased branches, because much of the effect of these trees depends on the 

 development of their natural form and character, which pruning with a view 

 to timber has in general a tendency to counteract ; but for all ornamental 

 trees, grown chiefly for their flowers or fruit, pruning can be as usefully 

 applied as in the ease of fruit-trees ; and where ornamental hedges and 

 other verdant architectural structures are to be grown, pruning by the bill 

 or the shears is essential. 



755. For ornamental shrubs pruning cannot be dispensed with, since 

 many of them are grown for their flowers, which are produced much 

 stronger and of brighter colours when the shoots are thinned out, or shortened, 

 or both ; and when the plants are prevented from exhausting themselves by 

 the removal of decaying blossoms, so as to prevent them from maturing their 

 seeds. Every one knows the value of pruning to the rose, and to all shrubs 

 with double blossoms, and shrubs with large blossoms, such as the Magnolia 

 or the passion-flower. 



756. Fruit-trees and shrubs are above all other plants benefited by 

 pruning, which is indeed by far the most important part of their culture. 

 The most general object of pruning is to create an abundant supply of sap 

 during summer by the production of leaf-shoots, by which the general 

 strength of the tree is augmented, and to limit the distribution of this sap 

 when it ascends from the roots in the following spring, by diminishing the 

 number of buds. The effect of this is to increase the vigour of the shoots 

 or fruits produced by these buds ; and if this be done in such a manner as 

 to obtain also the greatest advantages from light and air, the pruning will 

 have answered its purpose. If a fruit-tree were not deprived every year 

 of a part of the wood or the buds which it produces, its shoots and fruits 

 would gradually diminish in size, and though the fruit would be more 

 numerous it would be deficient in succulence and flavour, as we find to be 

 the case in old neglected orchard trees. The application of pruning 

 to fruit-trees difi"ers so much according to the species of tree that the subject 

 can only be properly treated by taking each class separately. Thus kernel 

 fruits which are produced on wood of two or more years' growth, require to 

 be pruned in a difl*erent manner from such fruits as the peach, which is 

 produced from the shoots of the preceding year ; or the grape, which is pro- 

 duced from the shoots of the current year. The production of blossoms, or 

 the enlargement of fruits and the acceleration of their maturity by ringing, 

 is a species of pruning peculiarly applicable to fruit-trees. 



757. To herbaceous plants pruning is applicable, not only when they are 

 being transplanted, when both roots and top are frequently cut in, but also to 

 fruit-bearing kinds, such as the melon tribe, the tomato, &c. Pruning is 

 even useful to the cabbage tribe when it is wished that, after the head is cut 

 off, the stem should throw out sprouts, which is found to be accelerated 

 by splitting it down an inch or two. The topping of beans, and the picking 

 off' of potato blossoms, are operations belonging to pruning ; as are the cutting 

 off^ of withered flowers for the sake of neatness, or to prevent the production 

 of seed, and even the mowing of grass lawns. Having noticed the uses of 

 pruning in culture, we shall next shortly describe the different kinds in use in 



