40 
THE APPLE. 
vertical ones cut off where marked. Koot pruning', when properly 
practised, is less an expedient for reducing the number than a means 
of modifying the character of the roots. Perhaps few trees have an 
excess of roots, if posted in the right place and of the right sort. As 
far as the making of wood is concerned, the more roots, and the stronger, 
the more and finer the timber. Root pruning would be altogether a 
mistake for the wood grower; but where fruit is the main object, root 
pruning is assuredly a safe and short cut to early and permanent 
fertility. Root pruning changes the character and the place of the 
roots, and so revolutionises the entire tree. It compresses fertility 
into less space, in less time, and produces a larger aggregate. Some 
condemn root pruning as unnecessary and unnatural; it is neither. 
In fact Nature herself root prunes. The hardness and shallowness 
and poverty of natural strata lorune the roots by wholesale, or effect 
similar results to actual pruning. They are stopped perforce, and 
compelled to break the one boring root into many fibrous ones. The 
roots overcrowd each other also to such an extent as to produce 
analogous results to root pruning. Root, in fact, is the most impor¬ 
tant, and therefore the most general mode of pruning. 
The perfect pruning of the apple is a chain of three links, only of 
unequal length and strength. Root pruning is the largest and strongest 
of the three; the second of most strength and value, is summer pruning; 
and the last, which in fact may at times be altogether dispensed with, is 
winter pruning. The three are mutually dependent, and give to pruning 
a unity of purpose and design. In general terms, it may be stated that 
the more skilfully apple trees are root-pruned, the less summer jDruning 
will be needful; and if these two are properly managed, the winter 
pruning will be of the lightest. This, too, ought to be the aim of the 
skilful pruner, to modify the issues of growth to such an extent by 
his action on the roots that the least possible amount of useless growth 
shall be produced as food for the knife, the most unprofitable product 
within the whole range of horticulture. 
The time to root-prune is important. As a rule October and November 
are the best months for the operation. Roots may then be sufficiently 
exposed to reveal their character without too severe a check to the 
tree, and barren or sterile roots shortened back at that season quickly 
develope into a network of fibres as shown in Fig. 28. The season is 
also one of more leisure in the garden than perhaps any other. For 
these, and Other reasons, October and November seem the best months 
for root pruning. But some prune much earlier. As soon as the crop 
is harvested, apple and other fruit trees may be root-pruned with safety. 
The check is more severe when root pruning takes place earlier. Apple 
I 
