ON PEUNINGr FEUIT TEEES AETEE PLANTING-. 



385 



I can hardly think the loss of sap would be so much greater in 

 a pruned tree than in an unpruned one, unless the ' bleeding ' is very 

 excessive from the ends where the shoots were pruned off. 



Whatever the cause may be, it seems to me to have a distinct bearing 

 on the pruning of newly planted trees in general ; for, although the Plum 

 trees referred to are exceptional, the effect is only in a less degree with 

 trees having a better root system in proportion to their tops. I have had 

 similar experience with apple and pear trees, some of which I have 

 replanted after having been planted five or six years. They have been 

 dug up very carefully so as to preserve as many of the roots as possible ; 

 and whenever the branches were pruned back at the time of planting, 

 there was frequently more or less dying back ; but I do not remember 

 ever having any of the branches die back when no pruning was done at 

 the time of planting, although I have had the trees remain dormant 

 throughout one season. 



Last season I planted thirty young Paradise stocks the stems of which 

 were a little larger than a pencil, and which were large enough for 

 grafting. I also planted some young Pershore plum stocks, all of which 

 had been planted out the year before, and had very good fibrous roots, 

 scarcely any of which had been broken in lifting. They were all planted 

 in my own garden in good rich soil. A part of the Paradise, and a 

 part of the plum stocks, were cut back to within nine inches of the soil, 

 the last week in March. Those which were not cut down made strong 

 shoots averaging three feet in length ; I counted the leaves on one of the 

 plum stocks and there were 146. I also counted the leaves on one of the 

 pruned ones, and there were 54 leaves. The plants selected for counting 

 appeared to be average ones in each case. 



I also counted the leaves on two young bush apple trees which were 

 planted last year in November. Both trees had twelve young shoots at the 

 time of planting. One of the trees was pruned after planting, and at the 

 end of September of this year it had 240 leaves. The other tree was left 

 unpruned, and at the end of September it had 792 leaves, each of last 

 year's buds having produced from three to five leaves, and each point had 

 given a new shoot of about six inches long. 



Possibly, there may be some who do not attach so much importance 

 to the leaf system on a newly planted tree as I do ; but it appears to 

 me that the more leaves a tree has, and the earlier in the season these are 

 produced, the more active the root will be, and the balance of the tree 

 will be restored much more quickly than in one which has but few leaves 

 to commence with. An unpruned tree produces nearly all its leaves at 

 the beginning of the season, and these can at once work for the good 

 of the tree, and for the formation of roots. 



I think it might be taken as the rule that, when a tree is dug up, and 

 the roots pruned ready for planting, not more than one-third of the 

 original roots remains, and that the balance between the roots and 

 top had been disturbed to that extent. I, as a gardener, was taught 

 to attempt to restore the balance by pruning the shoots back after 

 planting, either immediately after planting, or in the spring before the 

 leaves burst ; and I believe this theory is generally taught to other young 

 gardeners. But, I ask, why restore the balance ? Would it not be better 



vol. xxxv. D D 



