Los Angeles daily herald., 1890-03-13

gets good size. Where limbs of largo
size are taken off, the stump should be
shaved smooth with q sharp knife, and
then coated with grating wax or shellac
vsrnish to prevent rotting.
Objects of pruning-The first is to form
the head. The second is to prevent the
tree from overbearing, as peaches, plums
and apricots are apt to do, thereby max
ing smaller fruit and breaking down the
trees. The remedy already stated ia To
shorten in the last seasons growth.
Some have third object, that is to
make what is called an open head So as
to let the sun shine on the fruit. Think
this is fallacious. l find the choicest
oranges, figs, apricots and other fruits in
the most shaded parts of the trees. If it
was intended to expose the fruit to the
sun, Nature would not make a dense
growth of wood and leaves beyond the
last years wood, on which you find the
fruit. A friend of mine in Missouri had
a long trellis eight feet high, covered
with Concord vines, which we're loaded
With grapes. He thought he would give
them the much.extolled advantage of
sun and air, SO as to ripen them quickly,
so he cut eff every leaf which shaded a
grape. Did they ripen? No! The
grapes remained green and soured on the
vines, and were utterly worthless.
Leaves have several functions. One is
TO shade the trunk, tender branches and
fruit; another is to suck up sap, or
rather, to receive that which is forced up
by some power, not understood, partly
by capillary attaction, but perhaps more
by endosmosis. Another function is, as
before stated, to give off in sunshine ali
the oxygen contained in the carbonic
acid which comes up from the ground
with the sap, thus converted into cellu.
lose, or plant fabric. Starch and sugar
are chemically the same, and plants
easily convert one into the other. The
oils, acids, jelly, pulp and fruits, etc. j.,
are all formed out of carbonic acid and
water, or sap. Thus, after the leaves
have assimilated or digested the sap, it
is returned to all parts of the tree or
plant to build up and ripen the fruit, as
we'll as the tissues of all parts of the tree
and roots
l am in favor of judicicus pru ming, but
| am opposed to harbarity. l don't be-
lieve in "Jack always keeping his knife
sharp for the purpose of hacking off a
limb every time he comes near tree"
think we prune to excess. There is no
use in cutting grape vines here as they
do in Europe. There, the vines are
trimmed so as to sustain themselves, be-
cause stakes are out of the question.
Where poplar trees are shorn like a
mules tail for the wood for making char
coal for cooking purposes, wood is scarce.
[ have seen in Europe miles of poplar
trees on each side of the roads trimmed
up as high as man dare climb; 30 the
vines are trimmed to make them stand
alone. L am sure our vines would bear
five times as much as they do if five
times as many eyes were left on each
cane, instead of cutting all canes back tc
two eyes. If the ground is not rich
enough to bring the fruit to its highest
perfection. fertilizs it. More fertil;zina
and less pruning would be, in my judg.
ment, the wisest course to pursue. Why
not prune walnut, pear, persimmon anC
other trees. as we prune our fruit trees
There is as much reason for pruning
them as there is for pruning other trees
Gentlemen, we are near the twentieth
century, and | hope the world is more en-
lightened than it was sixty years ago, ant
that the inhabitants will discover man,
new things and facts, among them th
TACT that an unpruned tree when trans
planted is more certain to live and doe
far better than pruned tree, and tbs
when they feel determined to do som