CHAP. V.J 
PRUNING, 
113 
of it on each side, and then with his pruning 
knife, or a small saw, he divides the di¬ 
minished space. In all cases, the great art 
of pruning consists in making a clean sharp 
cut, so as to leave the bark in a healthy 
state to make an effort to cover over the 
wound, and in pruning sufficiently near a 
bud not to leave any dead wood. 
The time for 'pruning is either early in 
spring, after all danger is over from frost, 
but before the sap has begun to move; or in 
winter, after the movement of the sap for the 
summer has ceased. Summer pruning is 
also necessary with some trees; but, gene¬ 
rally speaking, it should be confined to 
rubbing off all buds which would produce 
unnecessary shoots, as soon as they appear. 
This operation is called disbudding, and it is 
highly efficacious in sparing the strength of 
the tree. The points of those shoots which 
appear to be running too much to wood, 
should also be pinched off; or every leaf 
may be taken off them as it appears, which 
will exhaust the superfluous strength of the 
tree; and the shoots which will produce no 
buds for want of leaves, may be removed in 
i 
