, 1860-08-24
AstieuItpts.
Excessive PRUNING.

Mce88tVo SIuu1nR.
II there Is any one thing Ia which common
sense Is the least used, we believe 1t is in
the pruning Of large apple trees. We con.
slider, a. general thing, that nature is a
good model and guide for the government Of
much Of our practice in horticulture. Arti-
fetal cultivation Of tree or plant however, We
acknowledge requires some variation from
nature in the pruning protecting, &c, but our
best models, even in the highest stage Of cul.
tivation, are taken from our most hardy trees
let TO their natural habits. These, while
they assume q conical or roundsh form,
screen their bodies, or main stems, from the
ground upward, BY side branches and small
crosstwigS spurs, SC. From these come
the Recommendations by fruit growers Of
forms 6or dwarf trees for trees on exposed
bleak situations; for cherries In rich soils,
DC: yet We daily and yearly see apple trees
prundd with an utter disregard Of all such
recOmmendations, with perfect unconscious
ness Of all knowledge Of natures teachings
or Of common sense In judging Of what is re.
quisits tothe health and longevity of the tree
upon which they are operating.
The performer, in far too many cases,
considers that pruning requires that all the
branches within eight Orten feet Of theground
should be cut away, utterly disregarding the
size Of the limb and consequent wound made
BY the amputation; wound that, however il
may be in time covered over with new layers
ofwood, never really heals, as may be proved
BY examining trees 50 pruned in future years.
Another perfOrmeF, generally an imported
one. proceedstotake out al the top Of thetree,
leaving three or four naked branches with a
few tWigs or spray at the extremities only
this. how'll tell you, is to open the tree TO the
light snn, dsc, Just as if nature, in the pro
dnction Of her own work, did not know bet.
ter than this bungler that July and August,
IN America, are not made up Of fog, mist and
cloud, but Of clear hot sun, and that instead
Of exposing the branches Of Q tree to being
blistsred and the fruit 70 premature ripening,
d was necessary 10 secure shade and all the
breathing organs possible.
During our experience we have been called
on time and again 70 tell what was the cause
Of 20 many apple trees dying In gentlemen's
grounds aud orchards. Nine times out Of
ten-We candidly believe we write within
b0unds-the whole cause could be traced
% this want Of little common sense in
pruning; 70 this want Of studying climate aud
vegetable physiology, to this sticking for
early tenching and foreign PRACTICES
Let Us look q moment at our hardest trees,
q such varieties IS prove most successful
the further suuth and west we 20, and we find
that nearly every one Of them are trees with
nalurally close heads abounding In small
apray for instance the Rawle's Janet,
Yellow Bsllehenr, Oriley, &C., the growth
~ mostly niedium.rIzed twigs fns grained
and with branches, when in fruit almost
sweeping the ground, or else in q perfectly
close, pyamidal shape from the ground
upward There are soma orchardisis who
Object 70 he knife ever being applied 70 the
tI11, and while We must dissent from this
entire following Of nature, when q part Of
he system Is artificial, at the same time we
believe Il Is preferable 10 The entire cutting
out of tops, or cutting away all the lower
branches Of apple trees. Think moment-
look n what are The actual wants Of the
irrt % endure The condition in which you
PLACID 4 70 continue healthy and vigorous
% Iiald yon ils fruits. and then-ouf away.