cannot properly swell ; and if shreds are too 
broad and too numerous, they are apt to oc- 
casion sickness, and prove a harbour for in- 
sects and tilth : let the number be lessened at 
all opportunities. A slip of the knife may 
wound a neighbouring branch, and make it 
gum, canker, or die. It will require care, 
and some practice, to avoid this accident ; and 
in order to it, keep the point of the knife 
sharp, and mind the position of it when cut- 
ting. Cut close and sloping behind the eye ; 
neither so near as to injure it, nor so wide as 
to leave a stub. 
The bending of a branch much is a violence 
to be avoided ; so that every shoot should be 
kept from the first in the direction it is to 
grow in. 
Luxuriant wood must be particularly at- 
tended to, to get rid of it in time, before it 
has robbed the weaker branches too much. 
That is luxuriant wood which, according to 
PRUNING. 
Keep all wall-trees clean, and particularly 
weak ones, from moss, cobwebs, or other 
tilth ; and attend to insects, snails, caterpil- 
lars, and smother flies. Any bark that is de- 
cayed by cracks, & c. must be cleared away 
to the quick, either by rubbing, or the knife, 
as filth and insects are apt particularly to ga- 
ther there: wipe the part clean with spunge 
and soap. 
Consider the soil about an unthrifty tree, 
and if it is thought bad, improve it by mov- 
ing away as much of the old as conveniently 
can be done. The roots may r be laid care- 
fully quite bare, and examined, in order to 
cut off decayed or cankered parts, and to ap- 
ply immediately to them some fine and good 
fresh earth, with a little thorough-rotten dung 
in it, and a sprinkling of soot or wood ashes. 
Hog-dung applied fresh is said to have a pe- 
culiar efficacy in recovering weak trees; and 
cow-dung may reasonably be expected to do 
the general habit of the tree, is much larger j g 0 od if tne soil is a warm or hungry one ; and 
than the rest ; for a shoot that is deemed lux- j if not so, the hog-dung is not so proper, as it is 
uriant in one tree may not be so in another, a cold dressing. If the soil is a strong one, a 
If strong wood, that is not very luxuriant, compost of fowl’s or sheep’s dung, lime, with 
happens to be at the bottom ot the tree, so any fresh light earth, (one part of each of the 
that it can be trained quite horizontally, it former, and three of the latter, mixed with 
may oiten be used to good purpose, as this ; the soil that is taken off,) will be a proper im- 
position checks the sap. A luxuriant shoot j nure, to which a little sharp sand may be 
may be kept in summer where it is not de- added. All these applications should be 
signed to retain it, merely to cut it down at made late in autumn, or early in spring, 
winter-pruning to two or -three eyes, lo. get- The constitution of a tree is sometimes na- 
ting wood where wanted the next year , or Rurally barren ; or the soil that the roots have 
this shortening may take place in June, to jj^ 0 ma y fl e so deleterious that no pains 
have new shoots the present yeai . Luxun- or perseverance will avail any thing; but 
ant shoots may be sometimes retained ior a con thiuing fruitless and sickly, admonishes 
time, merely as waste pipes. fh e owner to take it up and try another 
Ail diseased, damaged, very weak, or worn plant, rectifying the soil thoroughly if tire 
out branches (as they" occur), should be cut evil is thought to arise there. The smother- 
out, to make way for better; but if a tree is fly sometimes repeatedly attacks the same 
generally diseased, some caution must be tree, which is a sign of inherent weakness, 
used not to cut out too much at once, it there for the juices of a sickly tree are sweeter than 
is any hope of restoring it. Aiery old tree, those of a sound one, and so more liable to 
or a young one that does not thrive, may be j such attacks. Sometimes a tree of this kind, 
cut a great deal ; but prune it so as to have a when removed to a good soil, and pruned 
general sprinkling of the best ot the branches, greatly down, does very well. A soil too 
and keep short lengths of an eye or two of rich of dung often occasions 
the weaker ones, in a sort of alternate order 
Young trees are very apt to decline, and 
sometimes die, if suffered to overbear them- 
selves the first year or two of fruiting. The 
remedy is obvious, and should resolutely be 
applied. 
A weak tree is helped much by training it 
more erectly than usual, as less check is thus 
given to the sap, and so the shoots are more 
likely to swell : such a tree should be kept 
thin of branches, and always pruned early in 
autumn, keeping the top free from such wood 
as is stronger than that which is in general be- 
low, and all the shoots shorter than usual. 
Old decaying trees should be lessened a 
little every year, and constantly watched, to 
observe where young and strong shoots are 
putting out below, in order to cut down to 
them; and though the time for doing this is 
commonly at autumn or winter pruning, yet 
it may be best done in summer, as the shoots 
would thrive the better; observing to put 
some grafting-clay or cow-dung to the part, 
to prevent gumming, which summer pruning 
is apt to occasion. 'A judicious primer nt.i) 
bring the oldest an! most ill-conditioned tree 
to a healthy and bearing state it all is but 
right at the root, it hav.ug a good soil about 
it. 
trees to be 
blighted, and the remedy is to impoverish it 
with a sharp sand. 
In order to health and strength, a tree must 
not be kept too full during summer, as it pre- 
vents the proper ripening of the wood, and 
makes the shoots long-jointed. If more than 
one shoot proceeds from the same eye, re- 
serve only the strongest and best-situated. 
A crowded tree cannot be healthy, and it be- 
comes both lodging and food for insects. The 
blossom-buds of a tree being always formed 
the year before, they will be few and weak in 
a thicket of leaves, as debarred of the neces- 
sary sun and air ; but in order to avoid an 
over-fulness, do not make any great amputa- 
tions in summer. 
In clearing a tree of superabundant wood, 
take care not to cut off the leading shoot of a 
branch. All shoots alter midsummer should 
be displaced as they arise, except where 
wanted to fill up a vacancy. In a too vigo- 
rous tree, the midsummer shoots may be left 
tor a while on those branches that are to be 
ut out at winter pruning, as cutting such 
rees in summer is to be avoided as much as 
possible; so that a little rudeness in a luxuri- 
ant tre ? may be permitted as a necessary 
vil. provided it becomes not too shady or 
msigntiy. Watering wail-trees with an en- 
509 
gine smartly on a summer’s evening is con- 
ducive to their health, and frees them from 
insects. 
3. The fruitfulness of wall-trees (the ulti- 
mate object of planting and training them) 
comes now to be spoken of. r l heir proper 
form and health being good, the foundation is 
laid, but several things are yet to be done to 
obtain the end proposed ; and this chiefly re- 
gards the principal cutting, or what is called 
winter or spring pruning. 
If trees have been planted far enough asun- 
der, it is a happy circumstance, as the proper 
horizontal form, and the open middle, may be 
preserved. The longer the horizontals are, 
the more necessary it is to be careful to suffer 
none but weak branches in the centre up- 
rightly. If trees are confined as to length of 
wall, they of course take a more erect form, 
but still strong wood should not mount just in 
the middle. 
A tree is to be thinned of damaged, unpro" 
raising, and ill-placed shoots, and ot woody 
branches that are decaying or reach far with- 
out fruitful shoots on them, and always some 
of the old wood should be cut out where there 
is young to follow or supply its place. Of the 
fair and well-placed shoots also, the super- 
abundance is to be taken away, so as gene- 
rally to leave the good ones at four, five, or 
six inches asunder, according to the size of 
the wood and fruit. 
Luxuriant wood, i. e. those shoots that are 
gigantic, must be taken out from the rest, as 
they would impoverish the good, and destroy 
the weak branches, and are never fruitful ; 
but if a tree is generally luxuriant it must be 
borne with ; and the less it is cut, compara- 
tively speaking, the better. Such a tree, af- 
ter a few years, may come to bear well; and 
when it begins to shoot moderately, some of 
the largest wood may be taken out each 
year, or shortened down to two or three eyes, 
and so brought into order. The more hori- 
zontally free-shooting trees are trained, the 
better, as the bending of the shoots checks the 
sap. 
As the pruner is to begin below, and to- 
wards the stem, so the object in thinning must 
be to prefer and to leave those shoots that are 
placed lowest on the branches, that so the 
tree may be furnished towards the centre. 
See that those left are sound, and not too 
weak or over-strong, for the moderate shoots 
generally bear best. Weak shoots are al- 
ways more fruitful than strong ones ; and if 
they are furnished with fair blossoms, should 
be kept where a tree is full of wood, and even 
preferred to moderate ones on a very flourish- 
ing tree. 
The next object is, to furnish a tree. In or- 
der to this, the thinning of old wood, young 
being ready (or easily to be procured) to fol- 
low, has already been mentioned ; but the 
principal step is the shortening of the shoots, 
which occasions them to throw out below the 
cut, for future use. If they were not to be 
shortened, the tree would presently extend a 
great way, bearing chiefly at the extremities ; 
and all over the middle it vnetild be very thin 
of fruit, and thus a great part of the wall 
lost. 
The mode of bearing in peaches, necta- 
rines, and apr.cots, is o . the last year’s wood ; 
which makes it necessary to shorten, in or- 
der to a certain supply of shoots for bearing 
