THEORY AND PRACTICE OF PRUNING. 
desideratum to the amateur, will be attempted in the series of papers it is proposed to give in the 
Gardeners' Magazine of Botany, and it is hoped that, by the aid of the illustrations, the principles in- 
culcated will be found sufficiently intelligible. 
"When we consider the importance of the various products of trees to the human race, whether as yield- 
ing-timber, fruits, or the various substances used in our arts and manufactures, we must admit that they 
are second to none of the gifts of nature, and that the art, which has for its object the concentration of 
their energies for specific purposes, is truly worth attention. The importance of pruning admitted, it 
is obvious that the results of the practice must be in proportion to the amount of skill employed by the 
pruner. In addition to quick and clever manipulation, he should possess great discernment, and see 
(in his mind's eye) the result of each stroke of his knife before he makes the cut. This dexterity and 
fore-knowledge can only be attained by long practice. 
I would here make a distinction as to two diverse modes of pruning, one of which I will designate 
as summer or preventive pruning, and the other as the remedial. The latter is the kind adopted by our 
older gardeners, the former is practised by the most clever men of the present day. For instance, our fore- 
fathers allowed their pear-trees to produce a forest of luxuriant brushwood, which, in a given month, 
upon a given day, was annually cut off — only to exhaust the energies of the tree in producing another 
useless crop of shoots. How different is the practice now ! The modern gardener endeavours to 
balance the growth of his tree, by allowing no more branches and leaves to be produced than can per- 
form their functions, and assist, by their full exposure to light, in elaborating and storing up organ- 
izable matter for the production of the fruit or the flowers he desires to have. He removes unneces- 
sary shoots when in embryo by rubbing them off, and arrests the progress of luxuriant ones by timely 
pinching. He will leave luxuriant growths at then' full length, or nearly so ; depressing their points 
to make them push from every bud fruitful twigs of a moderate growth ; or he will prune back to two 
or three buds a weak shoot, and elevate its point perpendicularly, in order that the sap which would 
have had to support a number of shoots, may be concentrated and produce a more vigorous growth. 
If he desires to increase the strength of his trees, he will prune early in autumn, that the sap accumu- 
lated by the roots during winter may not be wasted. Thus, the buds which are retained will appro- 
priate the whole store of nourishment, and more robust growth will result. Nor will he forget, that it 
is as necessary to prune and control the roots of trees as it is to prune their branches.' 
"What I shall here designate as remedial pruning, ought scarcely ever to be required in a garden ex- 
cept in the case of dead branches. In our woods and forests, casualties are of frequent occurrence, and 
amputation of limbs becomes necessary ; but this may rather be termed lopping than pruning. I fully 
believe, that all the pruning which timber trees require, and fruit trees ought to have, may be done in 
the early stage of their growth with the finger and thumb, and a moderate sized knife, and there will be 
no perceptible blemishes in after years if it is tints performed. The saw, the axe, and the bill-hook, 
have no place in modern gardening operations, save in the accidental cases I have named : they belong 
to the period of Vandalism, and are now wielded but by Gothic hands. 
The sagacious and observant John Evelyn, writing in the year 1669, says, that " the ancients found 
such benefit in pruning," that " they feigned a goddesse presided over it." He says also, that " a 
skilful pruner should be early at this work ;" and, afterwards, quoting from his countryman, " honest 
Lawson (Orchard)," " All ages," saith he," " by rules and experience, do consent to a pruning and 
lopping of trees. Yet have not any that I know described uuto us (except in dark and general words) 
which or what are these superfluous boughs which we must take away." The age in which we live 
is, perhaps, one which would have made this (in his day) clever and useful man more happy, could he 
have known how much our practices in gardening affairs differ from the time-honoured usages of 
his day. "We consent to a pruning, but abjure the lopping process. Evelyn further says, " 'tis miserv 
to see how our fairest trees are defaced." It is to be feared, that could he revisit us, he would find 
too much reason to make a similar exclamation with regard to the management of trees for timber. 
For it is a fact, that, by far the greatest proportion of our forest trees have no pruning at all, and are 
confided to the management of men who have no knowledge of those principles which are indispensable 
to good culture. When we consider the vast importance of our timber in a national point of view, this 
seems extraordinary. "While horticulture and agriculture take rank with the sciences, and have the 
highest patronage, poor arboriculture barely receives a passing consideration, unless it be that which 
occurs when there is to be a felling of timber. 
Early autumn, as soon as the leaves of a tree have performed their functions, is generally chosen as 
the fittest time to perform the operation of pruning, because, after the superfluous branches are re- 
moved, the whole of the sap accumulated during the winter season is devoted to the development of the 
buds which are considered necessary — " provided always" that the tree is not of plethoric growth ; 
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