The Art of Pruning 
injuring it. The individual cells of this layer have 
the power to reproduce themselves. Where the 
cambium is cut into, provided the cut is made so that 
the sap can readily flow by it on its way upwards, 
the cells are incited into increased activity and by 
means of the rapid multiplication ot the cells at this 
point the wound is soon protected with a callous 
covering. A stub remaining after a branch has been 
cut oft' tends to die back to the branch or trunk from 
which it grew and the opening thus left by the decay¬ 
ing stub gives access to all manner of insect and 
fungous diseases that are ever on the alert for just 
such opportunities. Along the cambium layer 
of a stub no sap can flow and consecpiently its cut 
end cannot be healed 
over. The life of the 
tree pulsates, as it were, 
with the sap, which must 
in a manner complete a 
circuit from the roots to 
the outermost buds and 
hack again. Where a 
twig, or branch, is cut off 
the circuit is broken in 
that direction and the sap 
must now flow along the 
line that originally sup¬ 
plied this side channel, 
which is along the limb 
that bore the branch 
removed. This then ex¬ 
plains why it is impera¬ 
tive that each limb be cut 
off as near to the limb 
from which it originally 
grew as may be possible. 
To comprehend a little 
better the philosophy of 
pruning we shall have to 
consider a tree in what to 
many of us may be a new 
light. We shall regard it 
not as an individual, but as a colony of individual 
buds struggling in fierce competition with one another. 
As all draw their nourishment from the same source, 
manifestly an overabundance of buds will be a great 
drain upon the vitality of the roots that must supply 
the food yet have no power to limit the number of 
buds. As long as the roots supply the necessary 
pressure buds will develop irrespective of whether 
those buds grow into a branch or not. Pruning then, 
is simply man’s correcting of Nature to serve his own 
ultimate ends. It is in its final analysis merely a 
reduction of the number of buds and a consequent 
amelioration of the fierceness of the struggle, so that 
the remaining buds may the better serve man’s pur¬ 
pose, which in a fruit tree is the production of both 
quality and quantity of fruits, while in a shade tree 
it is the possession of a sound leafy crown. Let it be 
understood that all buds are potential branches. 
All late flowering shrubs are best pruned in March 
as they form their flower buds in the spring. Pruning 
the early flowering shrubs at this season will sacri¬ 
fice flowers, for these shrubs have formed their flower 
buds the preceding summer, though where a bush 
has been neglected it wdl often prove advantageous 
to sacrifice quantity for quality of bloom. The early 
flowering shrub's, of which the lilac is the most com¬ 
mon example, should he pruned immediately after 
blooming. Bear in mind that a hush appears at its 
best when its foliage is borne well down to the ground. 
Each species of shade tree has its own peculiar 
symmetry. Nature has 
designed foreach a 
more or less definite out¬ 
line to which the indi¬ 
vidual trees aspire and 
all man’s efforts to the 
contrary will result in 
the grotesque, if not in 
utter failure. A linden 
will never grow like a 
maple nor an elm assume 
the habit of a chestnut. 
Only dead limbs and 
such as interfere too 
much with each other 
should be removed. No 
limb should be cut off 
if the tree’s symmetry be 
impaired thereby. Study 
each tree well before 
you attack it with a saw 
and then have a good 
reason for every cut you 
make. 
With fruit trees this is 
no such matter. They are 
the result of man’s arts 
and in their development 
Nature must ever he guided by man. The object 
here is to remove all excessive wood, leaving just 
enough to induce the tree to concentrate its energies 
on the production of fruit, which is best achieved by 
striving for an open top so that the sun may get at 
the fruit from all sides. After having made each cut 
as near to the branch from which the limb has been 
removed as may he, as smooth as possible and at 
such an angle that water cannot accumulate thereon, 
an even coating of white lead is the best protection 
that can be afforded the fresh wound. 
The accompanying picture illustrates well both 
how a tree should and should not be pruned. The 
wounds have been made close enough to the trunk 
and are healing over nicely, hut the tree is headed 
too high and the branches do not spread sufficiently. 
203 
