214 
root pruning almost does away with the necessity of branch 
pruning. Sometimes, however, a root will escape the spade, 
and then, in the following summer, a vigorous shoot or two will 
make their appearance; these should be shortened in July, to 
within four buds of their base, and the following autumn the 
feeding root must be diligently searched for and pruned. All 
over-vigorous shoots should be shortened in July, as it tends 
so much to the formation of blossom-buds. To prune roots 
with a spade may seem a rough and ungarden-like operation, 
but to use a knife would be tedious. In defence of spade 
pruning I can only say, that it seems to answer perfectly well 
with my trees, and experience is generally a tolerable guide. 
I have also practised root pruning on apple trees for two years, 
and have reason to hope for perfect success. Some trees have 
been arrested in a most extraordinary state of vigorous 
growth, making, previously to their being root pruned, shoots 
from four to five feet in one season, having been planted about 
five years. From plums and cherries I have reason to hope 
for the same results. 
I have not mentioned the possibility of root pruning fruit 
trees of twenty or thirty years’ growth with advantage. Irre- 
gular amputation of the roots of fruit trees, too vigorous, is, I 
am aware, an old practice ; but the regular and annual or 
biennial pruning of them, so as to keep a tree full of youth and 
vigour, in a stationary and prolific state, has not, that I am 
aware of, been recommended by any known author, although 
it may have been practised. In urging its applicability to 
trees of twenty or thirty years’ growth, I must recommend 
caution; the circular trench should not be nearer the stem than 
three feet, and only two-thirds of the roots should be pruned 
the first season, leaving one-third as support to the tree, so that 
it is not 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 of the remaining roots may be cut, or, if 
the tree is inclined to vigorous growth, all of them; but, if it 
gives symptoms 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 all perpendicular, 
the tree must be supported with stakes, for one or two years 
after complete amputation. 
