TO PROMOTE GROWTH. 
81 
be broken off while young and brittle — cutting is apt to increase 
their number.” 
Where pruning is not required to renovate the vigour of an 
enfeebled tree, or to regulate its shape — in other words, in the 
case of a healthy tree which we wish to retain in a state of the 
greatest luxuriance, health, and vigour, it may be considered 
worse than useless. Bearing in mind that growth is always 
corresponding to the action of the leaves and branches, if these 
are in due proportion, and in perfect health, the knife will always 
be found rather detrimental to luxuriance and constitutional 
vigour than beneficial.* 
The best season for pruning to promote growth , theoretically, is 
in autumn soon after the fall of the leaf. Next to this, winter 
pruning, performed in mild weather, is best, and in orchards this 
is the season usually most convenient. In all parts of the coun- 
try where the winters are not very severe, (and always in the 
southern or western states,) the roots are collecting a certain 
stock of nourishment during the whole autumn and winter. 
When a tree is pruned in autumn or winter this whole supply 
goes to the remaining branches, while in the case of spring pru- 
ning it is partly lost. North of the 43° of latitude, however, 
the winters are so severe that winter pruning should be deferred 
till the last of February. 
We should especially, avoid pruning at that period in spring 
when the buds are swelling, and the sap is in full flow, as the 
loss of sap by bleeding is very injurious to most trees, and, in 
some, brings on a serious and incurable canker in the limbs. 
There are advantages and disadvantages attending all sea- 
sons of pruning, but our own experience has led us to believe 
that, practically, a fortnight before midsummer is by far the 
best season, on the whole , for pruning in the northern and middle 
states. Wounds made at this season heal over freely and rapid- 
ly ; it is the most favourable time to judge of the shape and 
balance of the head, and to see at a glance which branches 
require removal ; and all the stock of organizable matter in the 
tree is directed to the branches that remain. 
In pruning large limbs, some composition should always be at 
hand to cover the wound. This will not only prevent its crack- 
ing by the cold in winter pruning, but will keep out the air, and 
maintain the exposed wood in a sound state, until it is covered 
* Ignorant cultivators frequently weaken the energies of young trees, 
and cause them to grow up with lean and slender stems, by injudiciously 
trimming off the young side shoots and leaves, in the growing season. By 
taking off these shoots, the stem is deprived of all the leaves which would 
attract and elaborate the sap, thus preparing nourishment for the growth 
of the stem ; and the trunk of the tree does not increase in size half so fast 
as when the side branches are allowed to remain for a time, pruning them 
away gradually. It is better, in the case of these young trees, to stop the 
side branches when of moderate length by pinching out the terminal bud. 
