158 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
PRUNINC; IN SUMiViER. 
BY G. M. KERN. 
Horticulturists and Gardeners unanimously concur j 
in the opinion that pruning is an important operation, j 
Different opinions, however, obtain among them concern- i 
ing the manner in which this important operation may I 
be most successfully and profitably performed. If we ask 
the industrious nurserymen or orchardist why he annually 
cuts off so many large branches, and twigs, and buds, 
from his trees, we are told that such procedure is necess- 
sary to obtain fine, straight, and thrifty trees, to secure 
well proportion heads, and to produce therefrom a bounti- 
ful crop ot fruit. The vegetable gardener and florist, al- 
so, freely employ the pruning-knife. The one stoops 
down over his cucumber vines to make them accommodate j 
themselves to the narrow limits of a hot-bed, in view of i 
forcing them to bear an early crop; and the other tops 
and stops his plants in pots in order to obtain a bushy 
and profusely flowering growth. The vine dresser, too, 
finds it indispensable to trim his vines that he may pro- 
duce an abundant harvest of the grape ; and with the 
hedge grower, pruning is the all-important work which 
alone is able to render^his endeavors profitable and suc- 
cessful ; and he has yet to contend, it seems, with an end- 
less multitude of opinions, countless queries and innumer- 
able vexations resulting from the unsettled state of our 
general knowledge on this particular subject. In all these 
various branches of Horticulture, pruning aims to attain 
one common object ; it must be the means employed to 
give us entire control over bun o fide growth or vegeta- 
tion of the plant or tree. 
We may distinguish two main purposes which all 
rational growers ot fruit trees must keep in view to obtain 
the results desired : Tlie first, of the greatest moment, 
and which may be said in some degree to involve the 
other, is to control the equilibrium of the sap throughout 
all parts of the tree; and, second, to regulate adroitly the 
respective quantities of fruit-bearing and leaf-making por- 
tions. If the proper means for the attainment of this end 
are understood, the question at once arises— which form and 
habit is the tree to receive 1 In one case we permit nature 
to pursue herown course, allowing the tree to attain its 
natural shape and dimensions; in the other case we force 
the tree to grow according to our own patterns, a pyramid 
an espalier, or even a hedge. 
For a full understanding of the means to govern the equi- 
librium of the sap, we must look to one of the principal 
laws of vegetable physiology, upon which all proceedings, 
in this particular, must be based. The fluid nourishment 
taken up by the root, ascends through stem and branches I 
into the leaves, where it is altered in its nature, by a pro- j 
cess of breathing or respiration; from the foliage, as the j 
lungs of the tree, the fluid descends again into the branch- I 
es and trunk, to be deposited as a new layer between the j 
bai'k and former wood, thus swelling the size of the tree, 
by depositing these layers, or, as they are familiarly 
ealled, “growths,” from year to year; and a portion of this 
descending fluid, afier having been thus elaborated and j 
fitted for these functions in the leaves of the tree, passes 
into the germ to form and bring forili fruit to perfection. 
It is, therefore, manifest, that the breathing organs, the 
leaves, are most important agents in the vegetative pro- 
cess, and by the healthful quantity of its foliage the vital 
power and successful fruitage of the tree are governed. 
For this reason, the shortening of branches becomes ne- 
cessary when a tree is transplanted, by which operation 
the roots are always mure or less injured. Roots and leaf- 
making branches must, here, be dexterously balanced. 
Every bud that develops itself, in spring, into a shoot 
with more or less foliage, is, therefore, a pump on the 
quantity of sap which the root i.s able to receive. 
And here it is well to consider that the course of sap is 
always “onward and upward ;” the highest placed buds, 
therefore, naturally receive more than the lower ones. — 
Every part of a tree, therefore, which has assumed too 
strong a development at the expense of other parts, can be 
controlled, by depriving it of parts of its buds, i. e.: by 
making that part shorter, while the weaker portion 
should be encouraged by being left unpruned. But it is 
found that gardeners too often counteract this axiom in 
the science of pruning, and erroneously hold to the doc- 
trine that a branch is made to grow stronger by shorten- 
ing, while the long growth makes it weaker. This must 
not be confounded with the usual practice of shortening-iri 
branches with a view of uniting their w’hole supply of sap 
for the benefit of a few eyes, which must then, of course, 
take on a stronger development than if this supply had 
been distributed to many buds. On this principle, older 
trees, whose branches are disproportioned to the vigor of 
the roots, and which are frequently exhausted by heavy 
fruitage are greatly benefited by being “shortened-in,” the 
vegetative capacity of the roots and branches being there- 
by adjusted to a fairer balance. 
Passing on from the great number of high-stemmed fruit 
trees, wherein nature herself provides for a general growth 
and uniform distribution of sap, to the class of the dwarf 
trees, we find that the main purpose of the gardener 
should be, to bring the lower lateral branches to perfec- 
tion. To accomplish this object, he naturally finds it ne- 
oessary to shorten the leading top branches, allowing the 
lateral branches to remain longer, in order to form a well 
proportioned pyramidal top. The same object must be 
kept in view by the hedge-grower fuom the very beginning 
of his operations. To secure a proper density in the bot- 
tom part of his hedge, is the most important item in 
his calculations. He aims to accomplish this by trim- 
ming, very closely, the ascending shoot of the previ- 
our summer; but, with increased vigor, new and stronger 
shoots burst forth, and, if no timely stop be made in their 
disproportioned upward growth, these again are to be 
abated in the coming year. 
And here the great question arises — what means are at 
hand to control this growth in summer and limit its de- 
velopment to the desired point? — for certainly it would 
be quite unreasonable to suppose that to be a sound and 
sensible horticultural practice by which the tree is allow- 
ed, during the summer, to make as many shoots as its 
vigor may prompt, and which the gardener sees growing 
all the while with the pleasing prospect of cutting thenni 
all off the following spring. In view of such practice, 
well might we ask whether the vegetative powers of the 
tree might not be more economically managed? and, 
whether a fruit tree must necessarily produce a heap of 
useless brush-wood before its energies can be directed to 
the production of fruit ? And under such treatment, is it 
to be wondered at that many complain that their trees do 
not bear well ?- 
After the buds develop themselves into young shoots 
the course of the vegetative process in the trees should 
be closely watched. The outline and ideal of a perfect 
and pyramidal dwarf tree, with all its details, should stand 
out in a lively image before the imagination of the gar- 
dener; and, during the summer growth, it should be his 
aim to so direct the ample store of new production as to 
bring it, in the nearest degree possible, to a perfect tree, 
and to profit, by every means in his power presented by’ 
this redundant growth, to secure fruit for the ensuing 
year. With these considerations before his mind, his 
first efforts should be directed to secure for the tree a com- 
petent lop-leader. If the shoot of tlie uppermost eye pro- 
mises to become such, it may be preserved for that office. 
But, if inferior to some of its lower neighbor's on the 
brunch, some of the latter should be chosen for the leader ; 
