ROOT-PRUNING AND REMOVING. 



47 



from eight to ten inches long in one season (for such 

 ought to be the maximum of growth), and at the 

 same time be able to produce abundance of blossom- 

 buds and fruit. On trees of many varieties, the for- 

 mer will be in too great abundance : removing a 

 portion in early spring, cutting them out with a sharp 

 knife, so as leave each fruit-spur about three inches 

 apart, is excellent culture. 



I have not yet mentioned the possibility of root- 

 pruning fruit trees of twenty or thirty years' growth 

 with advantage. Irregular amputation of the roots 

 of too vigorous fruit trees is, I am aware, an old prac- 

 tice ; but the regular, and annual or biennial prun- 

 ing of them, so as to keep a tree full of youth and 

 vigor in a stationary and prolific state, has not, that 

 I am aware of, been recommended by any known 

 author, although it may have been practiced. In 

 urging its applicability to trees of twenty or thirty 

 years' growth, I must recommend caution : the cir- 

 cular trench should not be nearer the stem of a 

 standard tree than three feet, or, if it be a wall tree, 

 four feet, and only two-thirds of the roots should be 

 pruned the first season, leaving one-third to support 

 the tree, so that it can not be blown on one side by the 

 wind — and these, of course, must be left where they 

 will best give this support. The following season 

 ■ half the remaining roots may be cut, or, if the tree be 

 inclined to vigor, all of them ; but if it gives symp- 

 toms of being checked too much, they may, on the 

 contrary, remain undisturbed for one, or even two 

 seasons. If, as is often the case in pear trees, the 



roots are nearly all perpendicular, the tree must be 

 3* 



