human interest. A child will not show neglect more certainly than
they; and if humored and allowed to grow after their own fashion,
they will soon prove how essential are restraint and training. A
fruit tree is not like one in a forest--a simple, unperverted
product of Nature. It is a result of human interference and
development; and we might just as reasonably expect our domestic
animals to take care of themselves as our grafted and budded
trees. Moreover, they do not comply with their raison d'etre by
merely existing, growing, and propagating their kind. A Bartlett
pear-tree, like a Jersey cow, is given place for the sake of its
delicious product. It is also like the cow in requiring judicious
feeding and care.

Trees left to themselves tend to form too much wood, like the
grape-vine. Of course fine fruit is impossible when the head of a
tree is like a thicket. The growth of unchecked branches follows
the terminal bud, thus producing long naked reaches of wood devoid
of fruit spurs. Therefore the need of shortening in, so that side
branches may be developed. When the reader remembers that every
dormant bud in early spring is a possible branch, and that even
the immature buds at the axil of the leaves in early summer can be
forced into immediate growth by pinching back the leading shoot,
he will see how entirely the young tree is under his control.
These simple facts and principles are worth far more to the
intelligent man than any number of arbitrary rules as to pruning.
Reason and observation soon guide his hand in summer or his knife
in March--the season when trees are usually trimmed.

Beyond shortening in leading branches and cutting out crossing and
interfering boughs, so as to keep the head symmetrical and open to