PRUNING. 



339 



a tree standing alone, and throwing out its branches uncontrolled on every 

 side, because the quantity of foliage produced, and properly exposed to the 

 light, will not be nearly so great ; but it must be recollected, that the timber 

 produced will be in a more useful form, and besides, that Mr. Cree's tree is 

 supposed to form one of a close plantation. When we consider this last 

 circumstance, it must, we think, appear obvious, that by no other mode of 

 pruning could an equal quantity of foliage be exposed to the light in so 

 limited a space, and consequently so large a bulk of timber be produced in 

 that space. 



759. Shortening-in is the term applied when side shoots are shortened at the 

 distance of from two to four or five feet from the stem, the cut being always 

 made to a bud (515). Exceeding that distance it is called fore-shortening, 

 and is chiefly applicable to timber-trees in hedge rows ; and under that 

 distance it is called spurring-in. We have seen the use of shortening-in, in 

 connexion with close pruning, in the case of forest- trees, in the preceding 

 paragraph. In the culture of fruit-trees, it is applied in connexion with 

 spurring-in, to produce trees of conical forms with branches which, never 

 being allowed to attain a timber size, are prolific in fruit-bearing spurs. 

 Whenever the branches exceed two inches in diameter, they are cut off 

 within an inch of the stem, and one of the young shoots which are produced 

 there is trained to take its place. See § V, Training. 



760. Fore-shortening. — When the lateral branches of a standard tree extend 

 further than is desirable, a portion of their extremities is cut off ; the cut 

 being always made close above a branch of sufficient thickness to form a 

 leader of sufficient strength to keep the branch alive and healthy, but not so 

 strong as to cause it to produce much timber, or in any way to come into 

 competition with the trunk of the tree. The object is to prevent the 

 lateral branches of the trees from mjuriously shading the plants under tbem ; 

 and hence it is chiefly used in the case of trees m hedge-rows. 



761. Spurring-in. — The apple, the pear, the cherry, the plum, and other 

 fruit trees, or fruit shrubs, produce what are called spurs, or very short 

 shoots or knobs, covered with blossom-buds, naturally, and the object of 

 spurring in pruning is to produce these knobs artificially. This can only be 

 done with lateral shoots, to which the sap is not impelled with the same 

 vigour as to the growing point, because the great object in producmg spurs 

 is to obtain blossom-buds, and these are never produced on the most vigorous 

 shoots. A lateral shoot of the present year being produced may be shortened 

 to two or three visible buds, either in the beginning of summer after that 

 shoot has grown a few inches in length, or in the following winter ; but the 

 former is in general the better season, because it is not desirable to encourage 

 the production of wood and consequently of sap, but rather to lessen their 

 production, so as to produce stunted branches, which are in fact the spurs. 

 The second and third years the shoots produced are shortened in the same 

 manner as they were the first, and it will generally be found that the leaf- 

 buds left on the lower ends of the shoots when cut down, will the year after 

 become blossom-buds. As by the process of continually shortening the 

 shoots, the spurs in a few years become inconveniently large, they are 

 from time to time cut out and new spurs formed by the same process as be- 

 fore ; and finally, after a certain time, the entire branch bearing the spurs 

 is cut out close to the main stem of the tree, and renewed, as spurs are, by a 

 young shoot produced from its base. It mast be confessed, however, that 



