The Garden. PRUNING TREES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1449, 30 August 1879, Page 4

The Garden.

PRUNING TREES.

Deciduous tve>s, or those which lose their leaves during colaweather, ought to be pruned before the sap bogus to rise. If pruned afterwards they will " bijed"— that is, the sap will exude from the wouid. Where there are many trees to be pruned, a \election should be made, taking those firßt wnch break ont into bud earliest. First, perhap^ would be the almond ; then the peach ; then tie oherry. Last of all would be the mulberry, which is so chary of putting forth its green mantle that it is said there can be no frost afte N the mulberry is in leaf. Every book upon pruungs, nearly, gives a different rule ; perhaps theW esfc rule ia to cut no more than ia necessary toteep the centre of the tree moderately open tqallow enough of branches to shelter the etem intbis hot climate and to leave nature to do the rWfc. As * rule, trees are splanted too closely Wgether, and when the branches interlace theriis not •nongh play of air amongst; the leaves in Wm« $img.

The ground beneath, if anyway damp, is steaming with heat, and no doubt much injury resulti. Eighteen to twenty feet, at least, ought to separate each tree from its neighbour, and in pruning if trees are closer than this it would be advisable to prune off each second tree root and branch. Ther* are always branches which are barren', and these may be cut out, as well as those which, by growing across the centre, are liable to crowd it. Some of the old gardeners reoommend severe cutting-back on every branch — -" shortening them" — whilst some of the new light* say w« should not prune at all. The medium courie is most likely to be correct, except with some lands of vines, which must be pruned close to the stock to ensure plento of new wood.

Tresi have no businesa in a farmer's vegetable garden ; that is to say, a tree there 18 a weed and a nuisance, however v iluable ia its proper place. The fruit garden ia itself not less important or valuable than the vegetable garden, but the two do not go well together. A ■trawberry, to give the best satisfaction ■hould be left on the vines until fully ripe, and picked but an hour or two before eaten, and always picked so as to leave the hulls on the vines, as a strawberry of the tender-fleshed varieties, when fully ripe, cannot be hulled after being takea from the vines without injuri sg the berries. It waa not until the beginning of the present century that stalks of rhubarb became an article of commercial importance in the London and other vegetable markets in the kingdom. About 1810, Mr Myatt of Deptford, we are told, sent twa of his sons to tie Borough Market -with five bunches of rhubarb stalks, _ of which they sold only three, people npt liking what they called " phyfsiopiei.'^ Notwithstanding, Myatfc continued it» cultivation. Aa he predicted, it ioon became a favourite ; and now muxdreda of tons' weight of rhubarb are sold in Covent Garden in the course of the year, and what amount in other markets all over the country ir is impossible to calculate.