eater opportunity and care to
the single fruit. Pruning is essential, to converge the energy of the
plant into fewer branches, to give the fruits space and light, to
increase the efficiency of measures for the control of diseases and
insects. Part of the pruning consists in removing certain branches,
and part of it in eliminating the fruits themselves by the careful
process of thinning.

The pruning of nature is fortuitous. The tree has the irregularity and
abandon of the picturesque. The pruning of man is for a different end,
and it produces the comely well-proportioned tree of the orchards. The
tree becomes a manipulated subject, comforting to the eye of the
thrifty pomologist.

Branch-pruning is essentially the removal of superfluous
branches,--those that crowd, that cross each other, that are so placed
as to be profitless, that are in the way, that are injured or
diseased. For the most part, the branches should be removed when they
are small; but it is not possible to foresee all that may be needed in
the training of the tree and, therefore, the frequent advice to prune
only with a hand-knife cannot be followed. One needs a sharp
pruning-saw and sometimes a chisel on a long handle. Usually it is not
necessary to remove branches more than an inch or one and one-half
inch in diameter if pruning is carefully practiced every year; but
sometimes even well-pruned trees must be shaped, corrected and
improved by the cutting of larger branches.

Pruning is usually best performed in early spring. The branch should
be cut close to the main limb or trunk and parallel with it, leaving
no stub; the healing process is then likely to proceed more rapidly.
The wound should be smooth and clean, without breaks, splinters or
splits; the knot-holes in logs and trunks are usually the consequence
of long "stubs" and torn injured parts. The tree is to be left
shapely, with a uniform distribution of branches, plenty of
fruit-bearing wood, easy to spray and from which to pick the fruit, of
the form characteristic of the variety.

In all the usual customary pruning of the apple-tree, dressing of the
wounds is not necessary. It is much more important to give the added
attention to the proper making of the wounds and the thoughtful choice
of the parts to be removed. Wounds two inches and more in diameter may
be protected with good paint, so that they will not check and
therefore not hold water, until the callus covers them. Good judgment