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 light and air, the cherry does not need very much pruning.  If with the lapse of years it becomes necessary to take off large limbs from any fruit-tree, the authorities recommend early June as the best season for the operation.

It will soon be discovered—­quite likely during the first summer—­ that fruit-trees have enemies, that they need not only cultivation and feeding, but also protection.  The pear, apple, and quince are liable to one mysterious disease which it is almost impossible to guard against or cure—­the fireblight.  Of course there have been innumerable preventives and cures recommended, just as we see a dozen certain remedies for consumption advertised in any popular journal; but the disease still remains a disheartening mystery, and is more fatal to the pear than to its kindred fruits.  I have had thrifty young trees, just coming into bearing, suddenly turn black in both wood and foliage, appearing in the distance as if scorched by a blast from a furnace.  In another instance a large mature tree was attacked, losing in a summer half its boughs.  These were cut out, and the remainder of the tree appeared healthy during the following summer, and bore a good crop of fruit.  The disease often attacks but a single branch or a small portion of a tree.  The authorities advise that everything should be cut away at once below all evidence of infection and burned.  Some of my trees have been attacked and have recovered; others were apparently recovering, but died a year or two later.  One could theorize to the end of a volume about the trouble.  I frankly confess that I know neither the cause nor the remedy.  It seems to me that our best resource is to comply with the general conditions of good and healthy growth.  The usual experience is that trees which are fertilized with wood-ashes and a moderate amount of lime and salt, rather than with stimulating manures, escape the disease.  If the ground is poor, however, and the growth feeble, barnyard manure or its equivalent is needed as a mulch.  The apple-blight is another kindred and equally obscure disease.  No better remedy is known than to cut out the infected part at once.