PRUNING. 
41 
and otlier trees have even been root pruned ’in July with great benedt. 
It is needful to be cautious in root pruning so early, alike as to the 
manner and extent of it. And root pruning should at no season be 
carried to extremes, nor done in a reckless manner. It is such modes 
of performing a most de¬ 
licate surgical operation 
that has brought by far 
the most successful and 
scientific mode of prun¬ 
ing into disrepute in 
not a few cases. If the 
object of all proper 
pruning is to limit the 
size, improve the form, and hasten and heighten the fertility of trees, 
then root pruning is the best for all these purposes. It prevents 
overgrowth, regulates and equalises its strength, and turns the growth 
made into fruitful channels. 
Top pruning ought to be adapted to root pruning as the key fits the 
wards of the lock for which it was made. Mere routine or empiricism 
must never be allowed to wield the knife on the roots of trees. The 
root pruner may do his work so well that no top pruning may be needed, 
for fertility is a far safer, better, more effective pruner than the knife. 
Give an apple tree a good load of apples to carry by means of skiliul 
training or root pruning, and there will be little fear of any excess of 
wood to need cutting away. Fertility is the best antidote to excessive 
growth, and the surest and most permanent remedy for sterility. 
The mode of root pruning is simple. Some adopt the savage practice 
of describing a circle a yard or so in diameter round the tree and cutting 
everything off at that radius with a sharp spade. This removes all the 
best roots, and leaves all the worst ones intact. The proper mode is to 
remove all the earth from the chief roots of the tree to a distance from 
the bole ranging from a foot to a yard or more, according to its size, 
and shorten them back according to their condition—those that are 
thickest and have fewest fibres most, those that are weakest and have 
most fibres least or not at, all. Meanwhile all vertical roots within a foot 
or eighteen inches of the collar of the tree are cut off. The soil, or fresh 
earth if needed, is then replaced, the surface of the earth mulched over 
with a frost and drought proof covering, a strong stake if needful put to 
the tree to keep it immovable against wind and weather, and the opera¬ 
tion is completed. 
The condition of the tree and the roots will mainly determine the 
amount of root pruning; but, of course, regard will also be paid to 
iSit'i 
Fia. 28 . 
