( 30 ) 
Besides the perpendicular shoots, called Slickers, 
which, particularly whilst the vegetation is strong, 
will be constantly sprouting from the top of the: 
tree, there are frequently others, from the lower 
part, even to the surface. If these are Hot constant¬ 
ly taken oft, they Require a woody substance, great¬ 
ly prejudicial to, and, at length, dispute the pre¬ 
eminence with, the original tree, which declines 
as these upstarts increase in vigour : The conse¬ 
quence will be, if the Planters negligence has gone 
thus far, that he will be obliged to exercise the saw 
upon the parent plant, and substitute one of these 
his offspring in his place, Which Will afford him a 
poor indemnification for the regular annual produc¬ 
tion of a tree at maturity. Should a tree fail by age 
or accident, the saw must be applied a few inches 
from the ground, and two stickers allowed to ascend, 
that the Planter may* at a future period, take hh 
choice of the most luxuriant ; and this shoot, care¬ 
fully attended to* will yield you fruit in eighteen 
months after the! operation of amputation. 
Another occasion for pruning may arise from 
negligence in the manner of taking off these 
suckers ;—from not taking them off in time—let- 
ling them increase into too great numbers, and 
then cutting them off, instead of stripping them. 
These practices will increase the evil to that de- 
gree, that it will probably require a quarter of an 
hour to put to rights a single tree. In this opera¬ 
tion, as well as in some others of pruning, the 
operator must have recourse to that kind of Saw, 
called 
