February  8,  1900. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
PRUNING. 
Unquestionably  many  fruio  trees  have  been  greatly  benefited  by 
the  pruning  to  which  they  have  been  subjected  during  winter  ;  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  others  have  about  as  certainly  been  rendered  less 
■fruitful  by  the  free  and  ill-considered  application  of  the  knife  to  their 
branches.  Pruning  must  be  conducted  in  accordance  not  only  with  the 
habits  of  the  trees,  but  also  in  accordance  with  the  nature  of  the  soil 
in  which  they  are  growing.  It  has  been  said  that  if  summer-pruning 
is  intelligently  performed  that  little  remains  to  be  done  in  winter,  which 
is  true ;  and  it  is  equally  true  that  the  pruning  of  trees  in  summer 
113 
‘  opening  out  of  their  centres  ’  is  seldom  satisfactory.  The  time  for 
benefiting  the  trees  by  exposing  the  branches  in  their  interior  has 
passed  if  the  pruning  has  been  deferred  until  long  after  those  branches 
have  become  leafless  and  spurless.  Such  wood  cannot  be  made  productive, 
and  the  only  result  of  such  pruning  is  a  mass  of  young  sappy  shoots 
growing  where  the  sun  cannot  shine  on  their  leaves  or  the  air  circulate 
freely  to  render  the  wood  fruitful. 
Thinning  the  Branches. 
As  a  rule,  standard  and  bush  fruit  trees  which  have  been  permitted 
to  grow  in  a  natural  and  semi-wild  state  had  better  remain  so,  and 
Fig.  27.— JUSTICIA  FLIVICOMA. 
is  more  effectual  iu  the  production  of  fruit  than  cutting  them  severely  in 
winter.  Yet  although  this  has  been  demonstrated  over  and  over  again  and 
the  fact  became  public  property  many  years  ago,  there  remains  still  a 
considerable  amount  of  pruning  to  be  done  during  the  winter  months. 
Neglected  Trees. 
Not  infrequently  we  find  that  trees  have  been  neglected  for  one  or 
more  years,  and  usually  the  longer  they  have  been  neglected  the  more 
severe  is  the  pruning  to  which  they  are  subjected,  as  if  to  compensate 
for  past  neglect.  That  is  a  common  practice,  and  it  may  be  added  a 
common  mistake.  The  extreme  mutilation  of  trees  during  the  winter 
is  not  promotive  of  fruitfulness.  If  the  trees  have  been  long  neglected, 
be  they  Apple  trees  or  Gooseberry  bushes,  the  sadden  and  violent 
continue  bearing  on  the  extremities  of  their  branches  until  superior  fruit 
can  be  obtained  from  young  and  better  managed  trees.  If  any  pruning 
is  done  to  such  trees  it  should  be  limited  to  a  moderate  thinning-ouo 
of  the  branches,  severing  them  as  close  as  possible  to  the  main  stems  ; 
for  if  the  branches  are  simply  shortened  the  growth  in  two  years  will  be 
more  crowded  than  ever,  and  the  result  will  be  more  leaves  bur,  legg 
fruit  than  before.  The  excessive  pruning  to  which  young  trees  are 
often  subjected  has  been  frequently  alluded  to,  and  evidence  adduced 
to  show  that  a  more  natural  system  of  growth  possesses  advantages 
where  large  crops  of  fruit  are  the  main  object  in  view.  Uy  rigid  summer- 
pinching  and  root-pruning  a  tree  can  be  brought  into  a  bearing  state 
and  be  made  to  form  a  mass  of  fruit  spurs  before  it  has  attained  a 
height  of  3  feet.  But  of  what  real  use  is  that  tree  ?  1 1  certain 
