64 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
often be anticipated by a timely pinching. 
The dwarf pear tree needs more attention, 
in order to give it proper shape, and to pro¬ 
mote its fruitfulness. 
When a young tree is taken from the nur¬ 
sery, it is often destitute of the lower 
branches needful to give the tree a pyra¬ 
midal shape. The first thing to be done is 
to head back the tree in Spring, so as to de¬ 
velop branches within from one to two feet 
of the ground. If any push out lower than 
this, they should be rubbed off. This first 
severe pruning is of the greatest importance. 
If neglected, the sap will push up into the 
top of the tree, leaving a naked trunk be¬ 
low, thus defeating a prime object in the 
culture of dwarf trees. Use the knife, then, 
faithfully at first; get a broad, strong base 
for your pyramid, and the remainder of your 
work will be satisfactory. During the first 
season, branches will push out, on a healthy 
tree, from ten to fourteen inches long. If 
they become too thick, the weaker should 
be rubbed off, so as to economize the forces 
of the tree, and to regulate its shape. Se¬ 
lect the most vigorous branch near the top 
for a leader, and check several branches be¬ 
low it, by a slight pinching of their extremi¬ 
ties in Summer, so as to give a greater ad¬ 
vantage to the leader, and to the branches at 
the base. 
Early in the second Spring, all the young 
shoots should be cut back ; the lowest to 
within six or eight inches of the trunk, the 
next above four or five, and so on, tapering 
to tbe leader, which should be cut back only 
about one-half its length. During the second 
Summer, the young shoots which start from 
the horizontal branches should be pinched 
off, after they have made a growth of two or 
three buds —always excepting the leader of 
each branch, which should be allowed to 
grow the whole season: in the following 
Spring, it should be cut back to three or 
four buds of the new wood. This checking 
of the side shoots causes an accumulation 
of organizable matter in the short branches, 
and converts them into fruit-spurs. The 
leading shoot of the two should be allowed 
to extend itself upward from the topmost 
bud, and to send out side branches. If any 
contiguous shoot tries to dispute for pre-em¬ 
inence with the leader, it must be subdued 
by pinching. 
In the third Spring and Summer, the prun¬ 
ing should proceed in the same way. The 
lower branches should be moderately cut 
back, the higher more closely, and so up¬ 
ward, preserving a regular, tapering outline, 
terminating in a single shoot at the top. 
The leaders, both of the side branches and 
of the tree itself, should be allowed to grow 
during the Summer so as to extend the tree 
on all sides, and to use up the superabundant 
sap. The shoots on the side branches should 
be checked, so as to favor the production of 
fruit-buds. All weak and cross branches 
should be removed whenever they appear. 
This general treatment having been pursued 
six or seven years, the tree will have attain¬ 
ed a desirable size, and will require no fur¬ 
ther pruning except to keep it in good shape 
and vigor. If it becomes too fruitful for its 
permanent health, the fruit-spurs must be 
thinned out: if it runs too much to wood, 
the branches must be pruned more severely, 
and the roots may be pruned, if it can be 
done skillfully. 
If pear trees, both 
dwarf and standard, 
were more generally 
trained as pyramids— 
thus clothing their 
trunks with foliage 
from top to bottom— 
we believe they would 
be less liable to the 
diseases now so com¬ 
mon, and so fatal to 
them. 
The mechanical op¬ 
eration of pruning de¬ 
serves more notice than we now have space 
to give to it. Prune “ when your tools are 
sharp,” and never when they are dull. In 
cutting off large limbs, make the incision as 
close to the trunk or main branch as possi¬ 
ble, without mutilating it. To prevent the 
peeling of the bark, the limb should be cut off 
partly from the under side. To expedite the 
healing of the wound, the whole should be 
pared off smoothly with a sharp knife, and 
then covered with grafting wax or other 
weather-proof mixture. In pruning small 
branches and stems, the incision should be 
made as close to a bud as possible without 
removing any of the wood belonging to it. 
The knife should enter below the bud, and 
come out just at the top of it. When it is 
desired to give the tree a more spreading 
habit, prune to a bud on the outside of the 
branch: when a more upright growth is 
wanted, prune to a bud on the inside. When 
a gap in the tree needs filling up, prune to a 
bud on the side towards the gap. In pruning 
the leading shoot, cut each successive 
year-, to buds on the opposite sides of the 
tree : this will keep the tree erect. 
In conclusion, we say, make pruning an 
intelligent operation. Never lop off a branch 
at random. Be able to give a good reason 
for every wound you make on a tree. Lind- 
le'y well says : “ If well-directed, pruning is 
one of the most useful, and if ill-directed, it 
is among the most mischievous operations 
that can take place upon a plant.” 
CUTTING- SCIONS. 
Few persons are already so well supplied 
with the really excellent new varieties of 
fcherries, plums, apples and pears, that it 
will not be for their interest to add some¬ 
what to their stock. We stop not now to 
enumerate those varieties; our readers, 
perhaps, are already well-posted in relation 
to them. But we wish to remind them that 
the season for engrafting is nigh at hand, 
and that scions must be secured soon or it 
will be too late. 
Scions may be cut at any time between 
the fall of the leaf in autumn and the start¬ 
ing of the sap in spring. If cut in the fall, 
they must be buried in dry, sandy soil on 
the north side of a fence, and a mound of 
earth drawn up over them to throw off the 
water, or place in a cellar. If cut in winter 
they may be buried in a snow-bank, where 
they will not be likely to be thawed out till 
spring; then they must be taken into the 
cellar. Or they may be cut in spring, and 
stowed in a cool cellar until they are want¬ 
ed for insertion. 
The best mode of preserving scions may 
be stated in few words. The object is to 
keep the buds dormant ; and to accomplish 
this, we must keep the scions cool and 
moist, but not wet. If taken into the cellar, 
they should be laid in a cold corner, and cov¬ 
ered with damp sacking, which should be 
sprinkled as it becomes dry. They may 
also be kept in moss, saw-dust or sand. If 
sand is used, care must be taken that it be 
not very dry, or it will absorb too much 
moisture from the grafts. If verymois(,it 
will be equally destructive, and at best, it 
will dull the knife in grafting. We have al¬ 
ways succeeded perfectly in using damp 
sacks, or moist saw-dust. 
Scions may easily be transported by ex¬ 
press, from one part of the country to 
another, by packing them in damp moss. A t 
the present low rates of postage, they can 
also be sent by mail, if they are first wrap¬ 
ped in oiled silk. When they are to travel a 
great distance, it is well to dip the cut ends 
in melted sealing-wax, wrap each graft in 
oiled silk, tie them all together with thread, 
surround the whole with a little cotton and 
enclose in an envelope. We have known 
packages so prepared, to be sent from the 
extreme North to the extreme South, and 
though a month on the journey, they arrived 
in perfect order. If, by any accident, scions 
become dry in the transportation, they should 
be buried in common garden soil, as soon as 
received ; in ten days they will become as 
plump as ever. 
We will just add, that they should always 
be cut from healthy and vigorous trees, the 
wood being of the preceding year’s growth, 
firm and well-ripened. 
GRAPE CULLURE-NO. III. 
BY WM. CHORLTON. 
During this month, in all localities excepting 
the extreme North and Northeast, the soil will be 
in a fit state for working, and when so, no time 
should be lost in getting ready for planting. Hav¬ 
ing mentioned the injurious effects of humid and 
low situations, we may further show the necessi¬ 
ty for thorough drainage. If the land for vine¬ 
yard culture has an open, sandy, gravely or stony 
underbase, where the water passes freely away, 
there will be no further preparation required than 
deep trenching, or surface plowing, following with 
a subsoil plow that will penetrate at least twenty 
inches,—if deeper so much the better; indeed it 
ought to go down to the natural drainage. If the 
subsoil is stiff and heavy, the situation is inferioi 
for the purpose, and artificial drains will more 
than repay the cost of making. With regard to 
the grapery generally, no permanent success need 
be expected without attention to this most impor¬ 
tant consideration. 
Many persons think that the older a vine is be¬ 
fore planting, the sooner they will have a full 
crop of fruit. I have frequently talked with those 
who were hard to be convinced, that a three or 
four-year-old vine of large size would not set and 
ripen plenty of bunches the same season it is 
