MANAGEMENT OF FRUIT TREES, &c. 135 



fide-fhoots which will bear fruit the next Summer. By that 

 time you will have plenty of fine wood ; you may then cut 

 down the reft of the old branches that were left the preceding 

 year, obferving to prune them about the fame time as you 

 pruned laft year : always remember to pinch off the ends of 

 the ftrongeft fhoots, except the leading ones, at the top bud. 



When you prune in the Spring, never fhorten the fhoots, 

 as the fruit is produced near the tops. There will be a great 

 many fine fhort fide and foreright fhoots which fhould never 

 be cut off but when they are decayed. Thefe fhoots will 

 ripen much better than the long ftrong ones, and will not be 

 fo liable to be killed by the froft in Winter. By following 

 this method, you will have the trees covered with fruit from 

 the top to the bottom of the walls, inftead of having a few 

 fruit only at the top, which is the cafe when the common 

 method of pruning is practifed. 



When the Figs are about the fize of fmall Nutmegs, you 

 fhould pinch off the point of the top bud with your finger 

 and thumb, or cut it with a fharp pen-knife; and always 

 remember to ufe the powder, wherever you cut or pinch, to 

 flop the oozing of the milk, which, if fuffered, would greatly, 

 exhauft and injure the trees. 



Take care not to lay in the branches too thick ; they 

 fhould be from a foot to eighteen inches diftant. 



The trees muft be covered in the beginning of Winter 

 before the froft fets in, otherwife the ends of the fhoots will 

 be hurt by the flrft fharp froft, before the wood is ripened 

 and hardened, which will oblige you to cut them as before 0 

 When Fig-trees are very much injured in hard Winters, the 

 beft way will be to cut as near the ground as poffible; and. 



the 



