PRUNING. 
The shoots, daring summer, are to be laid 
in at full length, plentifully, as room will per- 
mit. The weak, ill-placed, or superabundant 
ones, cut clean out; yet rather break, or rub 
them off, in an early state of growth, for cut- 
ting branches or shoots in summer is, apt to 
make them bleed as it is called, i. e. the sap 
run ; when cut in autumn, the tig will some- 
times bleed for a day, but if late-cut in spring, 
the oozing will continue perhaps a week. 
At the principal pruning, the strongest and 
the closest-jointed shoots are to be preferred, 
and left about seven or eight inches asunder, 
without shortening. Let the spare shoots be 
cut out close and smooth, and as much of the 
old wood as may be ; for the tree will increase 
too last, and get too naked of bearing wood in 
the middle, if this is not freely done ; and the es- 
sential point in the management of the fig-tree 
is (as indeed of all wall-trees) to have young 
wood all over it, and particularly in the mid- 
dle, and towards the bottom. Wood is sel- 
dom wanted in a fig-tree ; but where it is, the 
shortening of a shoot, properly situated (by 
taking off the leading bud, or cutting lower, 
as the case requires), is sure to produce it. 
Do this in April, as the best time. 
When hard frosts are expected, strew some 
ashes and some litter over the roots of fig- 
trees. Mats should be nailed over their 
branches (first pulling off the figs), as the suc- 
culent nature of their wood makes them ten- 
der. These coverings are to remain till the 
frosts are judged to" be over, and then let 
them be covered up at night, and not by day, 
for a week or two, to harden them by de-^ 
grees. 
But fig-trees will mostly survive hard win- 
ters when in standards, without covering ; and 
though shoots trained to a wall are tenderer, 
yet ipeas-haulm hung close among the 
branches (at the approach of sharp trosts) 
will preserve them. This sort of protection, 
as affording plenty of air, is by many good 
gardeners preferred to the more common 
practice of matting. But it mats were con- 
trived to roll up and down, or kept a little 
distance from the tree, so as to give more or 
less air as the weather is, the health and fruit- 
fulness of the tree would be better ensured, 
for too close (and, as it commonly happens in 
consequence, too long) covering is injurious 
to both. Fig-trees that have been close co- 
vered are often hurt by au early uncovering, 
and y et the spring air, as soon as possible, is 
desirable. 
Pears being planted against a wall in au- 
tumn, should not be cut down till spring, 
when the head is to be reduced according to 
the goodness of the root, and so as to lay a 
proper foundation for covering the wall. 
The mode of bearing in pear-trees is on 
short spurs, which appear first towards the 
ends, and then form themselves all along the 
branches, which do not produce blossoms for 
three or four years from planting, and some- 
times (according to tire sort, or perhaps soil) 
for several years more. When they are 
come to fruiting, some pears bear pretty 
much on year-old wood, some on two, others 
on three. The same branches continue to 
bear on spurs from year to year, and most 
when five or six years old ; but as in course 
of time the branches may become diseased 
and banes, and not produce so fine fruit as 
younger wood, it is always proper to procure 
a succession of young bearers, as the oppor- 
tunity of good shoots offer, cutting out old 
wood. 
The time for general or winter pruning of 
pear-trees ought to be November, as the 
blossoms are then very discernible, and at 
spring pruning they get so turgid and tender, 
that almost the least touch knocks them off, 
or even the jarring of the tree. 
Apples are sometimes planted against 
walls, and what has been said of pruning and 
managing pears is applicable to them ; the 
branches, however, may be laid in somewhat 
closer, as they will not require so much 
room ; yet they ought to have from twenty- 
live feet in length of a low wall, or on a high 
one something less. 
Mulberries require good room, as their 
mode of bearing is mostly at the end of the 
trained shoots, which are therefore not to be 
shortened. Twenty or twenty-five feet 
should be allowed them, and a new-planted 
tree is to be headed down as directed for 
pears, &c. A succession of new wood must 
be always coining forward, and of course some 
old taken out, for the fruit is produced chiefly 
on year and two-year old wood ; and as it 
comes on spurs, and also small shoots of the 
same year, the leaving short stubs (of mode- 
rate wood)” in pruning, seems justified, though 
by some condemned. 
Cherry-trees, if against a wall, should be 
trained at length, four or five inches asunder. 
The fruit comes from spurs all along the 
shoots, on one and two years old wood, which 
will continue to bear. In pruning, have an 
eye, however, to some fair shoots for succes- 
sors to those that are getting diseased, or 
worn out. Some cut ail superfluous shoots 
clean away, and others leave a sprinkling 
of short stubs, which may be allowed ; but 
let them not advance far foreright. 
Plums of the finer sorts are often planted 
against walls, and deserve a good one. For 
the pruning of plum-trees, the directions 
given for cherries apply to them, only that the 
branches should be laid somewhat wider, i. e. 
at five or six inches, according to the sort, as 
free or less free in their growth. 
Currants and gooseberries bear fruit upon 
young wood, and on little spurs of the old. 
Superfluous shoots are to be cut down to 
little stubs or spurs, about half an inch long, 
which will throw out fruit-shoots and spurs. 
The mother-branches of currants and goose- 
berries will last many years; but when good 
young wood can be brought in for principals, 
a renewal every three or four years is neces- 
sary to produce fine fruit. 
The work of pruning espalier-trees is much 
the same as for wall-trees. 
As trees planted for espalier training should 
be young, let great care be taken to set them 
off right at first, by regular shoots, full fur- 
nished immediately from the stem, which is 
effected by proper heading down. Apples, 
pears, plums, cherries, &c. in general, 
need not to be so much freed of all branches 
at planting, as peaches, nectarines, and apri- 
cots. There are, however, gardeners who 
prune down to the stem all sorts of wall and 
espalier trees, as peaches are. 
The principle of pruning standard trees is 
the same, whether full, half, or dwarf stand- 
ards ; and the object is, to form a compact 
handsome round and .open head, rather small 
5H 
than large, equal oh all sides, with tolerably 
erect wood, capable (as far as the art of the 
pruner can go) of supporting the fruit with* 
out much bending. Perfect symmetry indeed 
is not necessary : but confusion of branches, 
weak and crossing, crowded and dangling, is 
to be prevented by pruning ; for a proper 
use of the knife is capable of doing much 
towards the beauty and fruitfulness of stand- 
ard trees. A little pruning of standards 
every year, and a general cue every three or 
four years, to cut out what is decayed, and 
some of the older wood where a successional 
supply of young may be obtained to succeed, 
is the way to keep them in vigour, and have 
the bert of fruit ; for that which grows on ok! 
wood gets small and austere. To take off 
large branches, a thin broad chisel is proper ; 
but if a saw is used, smooth the part with a 
knife. 
Clear trees from moss, by scraping them 
with a long narrow-bladed blunt knife, on a 
bit of hard wood ; and cut or rub off bits of 
decayed bark, in which insects are apt to 
breed, and wipe the part clean. Some use a 
scouring-brush, the long end-hairs of which 
are well adapted to clean the forky parts. A 
bit of hair cloth is also used for the purpose ; 
and a finish is properly made to do the busi- 
ness well, with a brush and soap and water. 
Of pruning shrubs. Many shrubs are cul- 
tivated for their ornament, and some for their 
fruit ; of the latter kind are raspberries and 
barberries. 
Raspberries bear fruit on little side shoots 
of the present year, proceeding from stems of 
the last, and sometimes produce a little on- 
those of the same year. To prune or dress 
the shrub, therefore, first cut out all the old 
bearers, whose wood dies ; then cut out, close 
to the stool, all the new shoots, except three 
or four of the strongest, which may be care- 
fully twisted from the bottom upwards, or 
tied* together at the top, or if upright and 
strong, left to support themselves singly. 
The barberry is a beautiful and somewhat 
large shrub, which should be suffered to grow 
with a full head, like a dwarf standard tree. 
It bears along the sides of both young and old 
wood, but chiefly towards the ends, and its 
branches should therefore not be shortened,, 
except with a view to throw out wood. Keep 
the root free from suckers, and the stem from 
shoots in its lower part, and prune out weak, 
luxuriant, straggling, and crossing branches, 
forming it to a somewhat round head, which 
keep moderately open. Let the stem be 
freed from lower branches to the height of 
three, four, or five feet, according as the 
shrub may be desired to approach to a tree. 
Flowering shrubs are of great variety, and 
the method of pruning them is to be deter- 
mined according to the several modes of 
bearing, of which consider chiefly these; that 
is, whether they produce their flowers upon 
the last year’s shoots or the present, on the 
ends or the sides of their branches. If a 
shrub bears on the last year’s shoots, it is evi- 
dent that it must be cut away no more than is 
necessary to keep it within bounds, open anti 
handsome as to its form; in this-case it is the 
business to cut clean out, or very low, what is 
to be spared. If a shrub bears on the present 
year’s shoots, the oid wood may and must be 
cut down freely, so however as to leave eyes 
enough for new shoots to proceed from, to 
