PRUNING. The art of cutting off parts of plants, and more especially of trees and shrubs, with a view to strength ening those which remain, or of bringing the tree or plant into particular forms, calculated to increase particular products. Pruning, therefore, varies according to the kind of plant or tree to be pruned, and according to the object in view. In the case of forest trees, the general object of pruning is to increase the quantity of timber in the trunk by diminishing the side branches, commencing at the lower part of the tree when it is quite young, and gradually advancing upwards as the tree increases in growth. In the case of hedges, the object is to produce a dense mass from the ground upwards, which is effected by shortening the side branches. In the case of pruning trees which are cultivated for the sake of their fruit or blossoms, the object is to thin out the branches so as to admit the light and air more freely to their leaves and blossoms, and to concentrate and increase the nou rishment to the branches which remain. In the case of trees, or shrubs cultivated for the beauty of their shapes, whether natural or artificial, the object of pruning is to deprive the trees or shrubs of all those branches which deviate from or interfere with the natural shape, or with the form which is intended to be pro duced by art. In pruning with a view to produce fruit, it is necessary to know on what description of branches and buds the fruit is produced. In some trees, as in the peach, it is generally produced on the wood of the preceding year ; in others, as in the apple and pear, it is generally produced on wood of two years' growth ; and in the vine it is produced on shoots of the current year. The general effect
of pruning on plants is to increase their lon,gevity; since the tendency of all vege tables is to exhaust themselves, and, con sequently, to shorten their duration, by the production of seeds. In the opera tion of pruning, the shoots arc cut off close to the buds, or at a distance from them not greater than the diameter of the branch to be cut off; because, without the near proximity of a bud, the wounds will not heal over. In shoots which pro duce their buds alternately, the cut is made at the back of the bud, sloping from it, so as that it may be readily covered by bark in the same or in the following year. This is readily done with a pruning knife, by a slanting cut, made at an angle of 45° with the direc tion of the branch; but, in the case of branches where the buds are produced opposite each other, either one bud must be sacrificed, or the branch must be cut off at right angles to its line of direction ; and is more conveniently done by the pruning shears. The operation of prun mg may in many cases be superseded by rubbing off, or, pinching out, the leaf buds, so as to prevent superfluous shoots from being produced.