232 
self preservation demands different efforts, and as the hoar-frosts of au¬ 
tumn betoken the coming hardships, it yields up its rich treasures, and 
prepares “ to battle with the winter storms.” In the interval of these 
storms its only duty is to repair any injury it may have sustained, and 
thus fit itself for a resumption of its vernal labors. 
In applying these facts to the subject of pruning, we commence with 
the apple, as a fair representative of that class of fruit trees which well 
bears the severe frosts of our winters. 
On this subject Downing says, “ Our own experience has led us to be¬ 
lieve that, practically, a fortnight before midsummer is by far the best 
season on the whole for pruning in the northern and middle States. 
Wounds made at this season heal over freely and rapidly, and all the 
stock of organizable matter in the tree is directed to the parts that re- 
i 
main.” Now Downing is generally received as orthodox authority in 
matters of this kind, but the deductions which he draws from the first 
fact above quoted, are so directly at war with all physiological principles, 
that his advice is calculated to do, and has done incalculable injury to 
young orchards. The “ rapid healing of wounds ” is not the only object 
to be obtained from pruning. On the contrary, it proves an insuperable 
objection to the pruning of hardy trees at that season. Why do they 
heal more rapidly then than at other times ? It is because nature having 
most, just now, to accomplish in the economy of the tree, is not only 
most busy, but is well provided with the force to accomplish it. It is the 
season appropriated to the formation of wood, to the production of the 
present year’s fruit, and to the deposit of the germ, or bud, of the next 
year’s fruit. Having all this business on hand, she is as sensitively alive 
to any interruption of her labors, as would be the farmer in the midst of 
a hurried harvest. At every touch of the pruning knife, now, the shock 
of injury is keenly felt, and all these forces are withdrawn from their 
legitimate duties to repair the injury. In our short growing seasons, 
there is no time to spare for such reparation. For, let it not be forgotten, 
all the growing energies of the tree must be expended in this business. 
Leave pruning to be done, then, when the tree has no other pressing du¬ 
ties to perform. I will be excused here for repeating the opinion, that 
it is not the loss of sap, occasioned by pruning at this or any other sea¬ 
son, that checks the growth of the tree; that it is too slow and incon- 
