MAY. 
155 
the tree is said to need pruning, and the attack is made. The saw and 
axe are brought, and in a single hour one-third of the top is cut out. 
A tree should never in this sense need pruning. The difficulty should 
be avoided rather than remedied; so that instead of felling great 
branches, the finger and thumb, or at most the pruning knife, will be 
sufficient to direct the growth of stalwart limbs. 
First, then, fix in your mind the general form of a perfect tree of 
the variety you are about to operate upon, and to this idea, as nearly as 
possible, train your subject, not of course arbitrarily or in one year, 
but by patiently studying the peculiarities of your tree, bring it 
gradually to the desired form. In respect to their shape, fruit trees may 
be classified into globular or round-headed trees, like the Apple ; semi- 
globular, or goblet shaped ; and the pyramidal or conical like the 
Pear and perhaps the Cherry. It is important that while we divert 
nature from her wonted course to fulfil our especial ends, we do no 
violence to her principles. Faults there are to be corrected, deficiencies 
to be supplied, but always obediently to the guidance of nature. There 
is a typical form, then, for each variety of tree, which should be 
regarded from the commencement. 
In forming, for instance, a pyramidal tree, the great difficulty is to 
make the lower branches grow properly and in due proportion to the 
upper ones. The whole secret lies in the management of the buds. 
Every shoot and branch commences life as a bud, and it is in infancy 
that their proper number and position must be determined. Leave no 
more buds upon a shoot whose growth you wish to increase, than can 
be maintained in perfect vigour. This will generally be about one-third 
of the number of buds produced, so that of those shoots designed to 
receive the largest development, two-thirds of the last year’s growth 
must be cut off. These should be shortened in before they start in the 
spring. If still the upper branches grow too strong, summer pinching 
will furnish the necessary discipline for them. This system of pruning 
must be commenced in the first or second year of the nursery plant. 
The difference in the early pruning of round-headed and pyramidal 
trees is, that in the latter one central shoot should always be left as a 
leader, and no rival allowed to grow perpendicularly ; the other branches 
growing laterally, the lowest being the longest; while in the round 
shape three or four shoots of equal vigour and importance are encouraged, 
all attempts to preserve a leader abandoned after the “ head ” is the 
proper height. 
As a summary of the points to be especially regarded in pruning, I 
would give the following rules :— 
1st. Study the requirements of the tree as to shape and relative 
vigour of the branches. 
2nd. Leave upon the shoots no more buds than can be maintained 
with the requisite vigour. 
3rd. The position of the remaining buds should be such, that when 
the branches are all grown with their future ramifications they will not 
interfere with each other. 
4th. To increase the growth of a weak branch, prune it close at the 
winter or spring pruning, and preserve all the summer shoots without 
pinching. 
