THE ART of Pruning Fruit-Trees WITH AN EXPLANATION Of some Words which Gardiners make use of in speaking of Trees AND A TRACT Of the Use of the FRUITS of TREES For preserving us in Health or for Curing us when we are Sick Translated from the French Original set forth the last Year by a Physician of Rochelle London Printed for Tho. Basset at the George near St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street 1685. THE APPROBATION OF THE Colledge-Royal Of Physicians at ROCHELLE WE subsign'd Doctors of Physick of the Colledge-Royal of this Town and deputed by our Company to Read and Examine a Book Compos'd by one of our Fellows which has for Title Of the use of the Fruits of Trees do certify that there is nothing in it which is not conformable to good Physick In Testimony of which we have subsign'd this Approbation at Rochelle the 8th of March 1683. Chauvet Arault Censors of the said Colledge THE PREFACE THere are Persons who perswade themselves that its a crime to add any thing to Antiquity and who say That nothing can be invented of new more than what the Ancients have said and that it is a vain Glory and Presumption to imagine we can say any thing which has not been written But if it were free for me to Answer this Opinion I would say That Arts are not of those things to which nothing can be added and that the Older the World grows the more they are carryed on to perfection Anatomy did not appear in so great a Luster in the Time of Galen as in our Days and the Art of Pruning Fruit-trees was not so perfect in the Time of the Curate of Henonville as at present We are like a Dwarf on a Giants shoulders We see much farther than our Fathers and we daily discover things which they knew not I will not say for this that there are not any precepts or Rules found for Fruning Trees in the Books of Agriculture and Gardening which have been Printed within Twenty or Five and Twenty Years I candidly own that there are some but in truth they are so few in Number and the greatest part so obscure and so little to be rely'd on that I very much doubt whether they may be followed without committing faults If on the contrary you stick to those which I give in this Tract many Years experience has assur'd me that Trees Prun'd according to the Rules which I Establish will produce great Fruits in abundance I have therefore reduc't The Art of Pruning Fruit-Trees into four Chapters and I have caus'd seven Figures to be Grav'd which I Judg'd necessary for the understanding of what I say The first Chapter Treats of Pruning Trees in the Month of February The second explains that of the beginning of May. The third teaches the Pruning at the end of May and the beginning of June Lastly the Fourth comprises the Pruning of July I thought fit to reduce this Book into a form of precepts without forming a continued Discourse because often we have need of one precept without having need of another and I have writ it after so popular a manner that the most Illiterate Gardiners might comprehend what I would say Opus arduum nova Conscribere Inaudita edocere Insolentia praeceptis firmare magis arduum aliquid Antiquitati addere THE Art of Pruning OR Lopping Fruit-Trees I Suppose that a Tree has been well Planted and set in a fertile Soil that the Root of it has been well cut that good choice has been made of the Plant and of its kind and that it has some years Growth to be able to endure the Pruning-knife CHAP. I. The Pruning or Lopping of Fruit-trees for the Month of February ALmost all Trees begin to sprout forth in France toward the end of February or the beginning of March and this is the motion which we call the rise of the Sap or the shooting of Trees This nevertheless happens variously the disposition of the Air the goodness of the Soil the vigour or the kind of the Tree make the Saps or shootings to come earlier or later They come early in a dry year and are backward in a moist This rise of the Sap invites then Gardiners to Prune or Lop Trees in the Month of February which is the most proper time for this work and tho' it may be done all the Winter however the Moon be dispos'd Trees being then at rest as to their Branches nevertheless it is much better to stay for this till the Colds are past and that the Rains no longer infest the wounds which are made on Trees by this means they seal themselves in a little time and soonner cover the wound which has been made on them Before you Prune or Lop a Tree you ought to consider the strength and kind of it for rendring it beautiful and fertile for all Trees are not to be Lopt after the same fashion We Lop diverly for instance a Peach-Tree and a Winter Pear-Tree and it s by Lopping of this last that the skill of the Gardiner shews it self the most conspicuously and that we judge best of his ability There are Trees which we dare not Lop by reasonof the abundance of their Sap for the more we Lop them the more Wood they shoot forth and the less Fruit even the Flower-buds yield Wood which happens often to the Tree which yields the delicate Pear call'd the little Rousselet to the lateward Bergamot to the Virgoleuse to the St. Lezan c. But when these sorts of Trees have shot forth their full after this they bear but too much In this occasion Lop sometimes short and sometimes long or not at all take away sometimes the young Wood and preserve the old another while cut away the old for the Tree to grow young again at another time cut away the Branches and all the false Sprouts but remember never to disgarnish the Stock by Lopping away all the little Branches of the sides of the Tree and making the Trunk bare Gardiners have a very true Maxim Lop in fair Weather in the decrease of the Moon and in the end of the Saps or rather when Trees are at rest The decrease of the Moon of January which happens in February is the true time for Lopping Trees and for preserving Grafts not but this Rule has some exception for weak Trees and those that are Planted but of that year ought to be Lopt at the new Moon to make them sprout vigorously And we must remember that Trees ought not to be cut when we Plant them but we ought to stay till the Month of February following When you Plant a Graft of three years which has Flower-buds preserve some to see the Fruit in the first year It is of these sorts of Trees that you must always make choice they shew from their beginning an assured fruitfulness and bear afterward a great deal of Fruit as long as they live Because it is known that an abundance of Sap makes but Branches
run up to a height it will be good not to cut them at all till the second year We must not touch the first year a Bud Crafted be it never so vigorous we must wait the year following to cut the Stump of the Tree come of Seed mean while care must be taken to stay it up against the Wind. I repeat it once again here that we ought never to cut Flower-buds because we take away the Buds which bring a great deal of Fruit during six or seven years following When the little Branches where the Buds are fixt are fortified by the hardness of the Tree it is then that we must no longer cut off with Sheers neither Flowers nor Pears there are some who say that we ought to cut Apricock Nectarin and Peach-trees four or five times a year to wit in February in May in June and in July but Experience has taught me as well as Father Feüillant who has writ of Fruit-trees that these sorts of Trees do not much love the knife otherwise they do not last long and we destroy them in the end by much cutting them We are oblig'd in this Month to nale them up and to cut at the same time the Branches which cannot be apply'd to the Espalier Some preserve them to be eut in the Month of February according to the Maxim that these sorts of Trees being very nice do not love to be cut or rather they pull away with the Finger the Branches as fast as they come against order and in an Irregular place After the first Lopping of February I am not of opinion that we ought to cut any thing from Apple-trees or Plum-trees or Chefry-trees or Goosberry-trees or Portugal Quince-trees or Spanish Pomegranate-trees unless we take from these two last Trees some Prodigals which ordinaly grow there and which do not fill nor embellish the Tree Tho I resolv'd to speak here but of Lopping Trees nevertheless it may be allow'd me to say somewhat curious concerning their watering which contributes much to the abundance and greatenss of their Fruit. It will be proper in the Evening at Sun set during the great heats of the Summer to sprinkle with Water sometimes the Branches and the Fruit of Trees with a Dutch Pump The Tree will be greener and the Fruit better supply'd with nourishment it is far better to do so than to Water them at the Root for this last watering renders Peats unsavory and of any ill taste whereas the first answering to an Evening Rain or the due of the Night keeps the Tree supply'd with nourishment which afterwards gives its Fruit the Juice which is meat for them for rendring them good and delicious For this we ought to observe that the Water which we will make use of ought to be drawn in the Morning and to have been a little expos'd to the Sun so that it should not be cold in the Evening when we would use it Moreover that the Pump has three or four little holes that it may make the Water which issues from it to divide it self into a Thousand little drops Finally that we ought to place our selves at fifteen or twenty Foot from the Tree which we will Water CHAP. IV. The Lopping of Fruit-trees at the end of July WE said in the foregoing Chapter that the second Sap or shoot began in the middle of June and ended at the end of July and we say at present that the third manifests it self in the Month of August and sometimes in the Month of September according to the disposition of the Air and the difference of the seasons so that it is at the end of the second Sap that we ought to meddle with Trees for in the Month of August we must take good heed not to cut any thing there and if we cut then any Branch the Wound does not cicatrize it self all the year the heat drys it and the approaching Winter incommodes it with the excess of its Rains and colds This Lopping is not performed but to cause the Branches to be fortified to make the Flower-buds to fill themselves and to cause the Fruit to be nourisht the more If we ought to be scrupulous in the Month of June to Lop Trees we ought to be so for a much greater reason this Month for at present we must but pinch away with the nails the ends of or cut a little some Branches We must choose then in July a fine day and the decrease of the Moon to visit the Trees and we must call to mind the division which we have made of the Branches of Trees We must Lop again at the second knot the Prodigals a third time if they have shot vigorously that we may wound so often the Branch which receives much of Sap that its divers Wounds may weaken it and divert by this means the Sap to other places that it may be divided into many Branches These Prodigals come not much but in Trees Grafted on the Pear-tree and Planted in a good Soil as I have said and so we must not seek for them elsewhere for those which are Grafted on the great Quince-tree do not shoot much and in this Month we ought to cut nothing in these last sorts of Trees In this Month we must not touch the Indifferent Branches which we judg'd to be so in the Months of February and of June we must stay till the Month of February following to Lop them if they ought to be Lopt Neither must we touch of those which are Fertile but concerning those which issue from a Flower-bud which has faild there are differing sentiments The shoot which issues from this Bud having been cut at the second knot in the Month of June shoots sometimes at the second Sap and yields one or two Scions Some will have it that we should cut these also at the second knot because they pretend that Nature ought to form there some disposition to make Buds Others Lop at the second Eye the least and preserve the fairest and best fed and knotted to see in February following if it will shew its Genius and at that time they leave it all entire because it comes from a Fertile place or cut it very long They have observ'd by experience that three years afterwards it brings a great many Buds whence issue an infinite number of Fruit. If in this Month there are found some useless Branches besides they must be cut an Eye or two from the Mother-Branch to make them shoot forth somewhat that is good There come often on Peach and Nectarin-trees and sometimes on Pear-trees a cluster of Branches which happens often to Trees grown old and fit to be cut for renewing themselves We must do at this time as we did in the February before that is to say we must make choice of the Master Sprig to preserve it and cut away the others Nevertheless there are some who stay till the Month of February ensuing to do this because that in July the heat
or irregular Branch grows behind it is always cut away ev'n tho' it has on it a Flower-bud for the Fruit which would come of it would be spoil'd by the shadow of the Tree and would be good for nothing if it be before we cut it an Eye or two from the Mother Branch to try to make some Flower-buds spring forth there A Branch bent by force bears much Fruit but it is small unless it were plyed so the first year the reason is evident its Fibres are bent and the Sap does not carry it self briskly to it Sometimes forked sprouts or knots of Scions shoot forth from certain places of Trees when they are Old and at a stand that they need to be cut to renew them In this occasion we ought to cut at a good length a Master Sprig in Pear-trees and Apple-trees and to cut some an Eye or two from the Mother Branch and cut others near the Trunk but in Nectarin and Peach-trees we ought to cut all the lesser Branches an Eye or two from the Mother Branch and let the longest and streightest run on tho' it would be the shortest way in these last Trees to cut a great Branch near the Trunk or to cut the Trees two or three Fingers breadth from the Earth to renew them You must cut one Branch short betwixt two long to fill out the Tree The year following the short Branch must be cut long and the long short It is the secret to have much Fruit and to preserve Trees there are some who say that a Tree Lopt after that manner is not agreeable to behold but I desire them to stay to consider them till the Month of May and I am well assur'd they will change their sentiment A Tree is ordinarily compos'd of three sorts of Branches we find on it Ravenous or Prodigal Indifferent and Fertile 1. The Ravenous grow most commonly at the top of the Tree and sometimes they spring from an Old Branch they are finely even and without Moss greater and more smooth than the others 2. The Indifferent are of a mean sort among which there are sometimes some well supply'd with Juice they bearing sometimes Fruit within three or four years 3. The Fertile are ordinarily small and growing athwart sometimes there are found of them great and long they always bear Fruit there are counted five sorts of them 1. The first have in their source and in the place whence they spring little Wrinkles like Rings which shew that in this place there are transverse Fibres in the Wood. It s in these Fibres where is made a slow circulation of the Sap of the Tree which produces the Flower-bud whereas when the Fibres are all streight the Sap is carryed upward vigorously and without resistance and not staying it self in any place it produces nought but Wood We may Observe these transverse Fibres in cutting the Wood where there are of these Rings the cut will not be close and even as elsewhere The Figure following will Represent to you the Fertile Branch Fig. 1 A. The Wrinkles and Rings of a Branch of a Bon-Chrêtien Pear-tree 2. The Second Fertile sprouts have no Rings in their Origine where they Issue from their Mother Branch but they have in the middle that is to say when an Indifferent Branch having not been cut in February shoots forth Wood in May and forms Wrinkles at the beginning of its shoot or when a Branch in its middle forms Rings betwixt the end of its shoot of May and the beginning of that of June which may be known easily if a Man will make the experiment for in cutting the wood in this place as I ev'n now mention'd the cut will not appear pear smooth as elsewhere but uneven by the transverse Fibres that are there The following Figure Represents the Second Fertile Branch in a Bon-Chrêtien Fig. 2 A. Rings and Wrinkles at the beginning of the Shoot of May or betwixt the end of the Shoot of May and the beginning of that of June 3. The third kind of Fertile Branches Issues from a Flower-Bud which has fail'd to blow sometimes for outward causes and often through the abundance of the Sap of the Tree They Issue also from a Bud which has yielded Pears they are call'd Fertile because they come of a Flower or Fruit-bud which experience discovers to us to have transverse Fibres The third Figure shews it us in a little Branch with Flower and Fruit-buds of a Bon-Chrêtien Fig. 3 A. The Bud which has yielded Pears or has fail'd to blow B. The Fertile Branch which we must let grow on C. The lesser Branch which we must cut away D. Where it ought to be cut at two knots E. The Bearer 4. The Fourth kind of Fertile Branches are those which the year before were Indifferent and which are become Fertile through the little Sap that is come to them and by the Buds which are grown to a fulness 5. Finally the Fifth are those which have a Flower-bud at the end of the Branch 1. Of these three sorts of Branches that is to say of the Prodigal Indifferent and Fertile the Prodigal are always cut very short at the first or second knot to make the Sap pass to another side of the Tree and produce there Branches Indifferent or Fertile This Lopping reiterated many times makes the Prodigal Dye or at leastwise hinders the Tree from pushing them so vigorously It s by reason of this experiment that we ought not to cut Trees much because by cutting them in all their Branches they are made to Languish and afterwards to Dye The Prodigals which have been cut many times the precedent year ought to be Lopt at the first knot near the Mother Branch whence it grows as the Fourth Figure shews Fig. 4 A. A Prodigal cut in February at the Second knot B. A Prodigal cut in June at the Second knot C. A Shoot of the Prodigal in July which has not been cut because it has shot very little D. Where we must cut a Prodigal in February of the following year at the first knot Lop therefore the top of the Tree where the Prodigal Branches are Ordinarily found and spread it at the bottom and at the sides this Lopping gracefully fills a Tree and hinders it from Growing to too great a height and from destroying it self in a short time 2. As for the Indifferent Branches some of them ought to be Lopt others not that is to say we ought in the Month of February to let those grow on which have Buds for Wood very near each other and which issue from a good place as also those which have two great Leaf-buds which touch each other at the end of the Branch to the end we may know their Genius at the Lopping of June The greatest and best supply'd with Juice will be the best for keeping The Indifferent which we ought to cut at the third or fourth knot are those which are least dispos'd to bear
of the Saps or rather when Trees are at rest The rest of a Tree is known by a bud Garnish't ordinarily with two Leaves which forms it self at the end of the Branches and we observe chiefly this bud at the end of May or at the beginning of June that is to say after the first Sap or shooting The second Sap or shooting of Trees begins ordinarily in the middle of June and ends a Month after towards Magdalen-tide so that betwixt the end of the first Sap and the beginning of the second there is about a Month and it s at this time that we must cut Trees again The effect of this re-cutting is to make the Buds of the first Sap to fill up to force Trees to make Fertile Branches or to form Flower-buds for the following year whereas the Lop of February furnishes but Wood to yield Fruit three years after if we except the Orange the Bergamot the Double-flower the Summer Bon-Chretien and some others You ought here to call to mind that we have distinguisht the Branches of Trees Into Prodigals Indifferent and Fertile There are few Trees Grafted on cultivated Trees and on Trees come of Kernels which do not yield some Prodigal in the first Sap and which do not continue even to yield of them in the others Care must be taken therefore to cut them at the second Leaf-bud and thus to correct the shoot which transports it self and which draws a great part of the Sap of the Tree On this matter you may see the fourth Figure As for Trees Grafted on the great Quince-trees they have not often of these sorts of Prodigal shoots and some Gardiners are ev'n of the mind that they ought not to be Lopt at this time and that the tops of them ought only to be pincht off with the Nails We must not deal with the Indifferent Branches as with the Prodigal for we ought to keep the best without touching them and observe exactly those which we permitted to run on in the Month of February If these have good marks for proving Fertile we must cut nothing there but if they have not they must be cut short enough to make them yield some that is to say they must be cut at the fifth or sixth knot for Leaves As for the other Indifferents we ought to cut them at half a foot or ev'n a foots length for rendring them Fertile the year following The Indifferents which we must not cut have particular marks which we have observ'd in the first Chapter We ought not to touch the Fertile Branches for the reasons mentioned elsewhere unless it be sometimes those which Issue from a Flower-bud which has fail'd Before I pass farther it will be proper for me to explain my self on what I pretend to say by a Flower-bud which has fail'd and you must give me leave to make two sorts of Flower-buds One sort is certain and never shoots forth Wood they are these which will yield Fruit in a short time The others shoot forth Wood when the Sap abounds too much or when we cut a Tree too short and that by this means we draw the Sap too much toward these sorts of Buds They are these Buds which will not blow under two or three years Their Origine their situation and their Figure make them easily distinguishable to a Gardiner which has experience and a good sence This being thus establisht I may say that a Scion which shoots in a Fruit-bud which has fail'd is situated in a good place for being called Fertile as I have said it elsewhere and that if the Sap of the Tree had not been so abundant to make this Bud shoot which yielded the Scion doubtless this Bud would have become the year following a Flower-bud besides the Fibres of the Bud being transverse cause the Sap to circulate more slowly and during all this time the Sun concocts and digests the humour to form there Fruit-buds for Fruit. I though good to alledge all this to shew the errour wherein some are who will have us always to cut this Scion ev'n when the Fruit has fail'd and for this they call it a false and an ill shoot But experience has taught me that it has marks of Fertileness and that two years or at farthest three years afterward if it were not cut away it would furnish it self with Flower-buds and would bear during six or seven years an infinite number of Fruit. If therefore the Flower-bud which is on a little bearer that has fail'd which would yield Fruit the next year or two years after shoots Wood it ought to be cut short in June to make it form there Fruit-buds which happens sometimes otherwise through the abundance of the Sap for a Scion or two form themselves there as may be seen in the third Figure Nevertheless there are some who will not have us to cut this Scion in June they preserve it for the Fruit and cut it long in the Month of February following or do not Lop them at all and if there are two they let the best grow and cut the other an Eye or two from the Mother-Branch But however I think we must here distinguish two sorts of Scions which come in a Flower-bud which has fail'd There are bearers and vigorous Buds which shoot forth two or three Scions whereof some are long and slender others short and slender and others again short and thick We must not touch these last because most commonly a Flower-bud forms it self there and we must not always cut the others an Eye or two from the Mother-Branch If some disposition for a Flower-bud forms it self near the Scion cut within an Eye or two of the Mother-Branch we must accept of it from the liberal hand of Nature if none be form'd there and that another Scion grows there they must be lest for the Months of July or February following If the Bud which produces the Scion be weak we must not touch it but we must preserve the Scion for the Fruit at least if it appears well furnisht with Sap in August for if we cut it it will be at a stand and will not shoot We must cut larger in June than in February because it is at that time that we give the Figure to the Tree for the year following and that we cause Fruit-buds to be form'd for two years after If Grafts within a cleft made in the top of a Stock are vigorous the year that they are grafted it is better as some think to pinch the ends of them away with the Nails at the beginning of June than to cut them But experience has taught me that if we design a Graft which shoots vigorously either for a Bush head or for an Espalier we ought to cut it at the New of the Moon three or four Months after it is Grafted to make it spread below and to secure it from the Wind We gain a year by so doing As for Trees which we design to let
or after Meals Their pungent sharpness ought to be corrected as that of Cherries and Pomegranates or we may make them into a Sugar Paste or Gelly which is very proper for those who have the Stomach weakend by long Sicknesses and I have Cur'd many Persons of considerable quality who had this part very much afflicted by continual Vomitings and had a troublesome Loosness of the Belly by giving only a Paste or Gelly of Corands and of the moist conserve of Provins Roses In Imitation of the Turks during the great heats of the Summer we may make of the greatest part of the Fruits before spoken of a sort of Sherbet to be drank with Ice and I allow young Sanguine and bilous People who have known by experience that drinking with Ice does not incommode them I allow them I say to drink of it with prudence for allaying the excess of their heat This will be a sure means to hinder them from being set upon by continual and Malignant Fevers and to keep them in good Health during all the Summer and Autumn As for others who are of another temperament and of another Age they must not touch of it and they must remember that heat which we must not destroy is one of the Principles of our Life THE TABLE OF THE Chapters of the First PART THe Art of Pruning Fruit-trees Pag. 1 Chap. 1. The Pruning of Fruit-trees for the Month of February p. 2 Chap. 2. The Pruning of Fruit-trees at the beginning of May. p. 31 Chap. 3. The Pruning of Fruit-trees at the beginning of June p. 33 Chap. 4. The Pruning of Fruit-trees at the end of July p 42 An Explanation of some words us'd by Gardiners to express themselves speaking of Fruit-trees p. 48 The end of the First Table THE TABLE OF THE SECOND PART OF the Vse of the Fruits of Trees for keeping us in Health or for Curing us when we are Sick Pag. 50 Chap. 1. Of the Fruits which ought to be eaten before Meals p. 59 Art 1. Of Figgs p. 60 Art 2. Of Nectarins and Peaches p. 65 Art 3. Of Plums and Apricocks p. 69 Art 4. Of Mulberries p. 71 Art 5. Of sharp Cherries p. 74 Chap. 2. Of the Fruits which ought to be eaten after Meals p. 78 Art 1. Of Pears p. 79 Art 2. Of Apples p. 83 Art 3. Of Quinces p. 87 Art 4. Of Medlars and Services p. 90 Chap. 3. Of the Fruits which may be eaten before and after Meals p. 93 Art 1. Of Raisins p. 94 Art 2. Of China and Portugal Oranges p. 98 Art 3. Of Spanish Pomegranates p. 100 Art 4. Of Corands p. 103 The end of Second Table A CATALOGUE of some Books Printed for and to be sold by Thomas Basset at the George in Fleet-street Folio DR Lightsoots Works in two Volumes Speeds Mapps and Geography of Great Brittain and Ireland and of Foreign Parts Wanleys History of Man Bishop Wilkins Real Character Pharmacopeia Londinensis Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity Judge Jones Reports Judge Winches Book of Entries Guillims Heraldry Bishop Saudersons Sermons Foulis History of Romish Treasons Crokes Reports in three Volumes Daltons Offices of Sheriffs Justice of Peace Cokes Reports in 13 Parts Selden's Jani Anglorum in English Lex Mercatoria Mezerays History of France Cowels Interpreter Enlarged by Manley Littleton's Reports Dr. Howels History of the World Grotius of War and Peace English Townsends Historical Collections Pharamond Heaths Chronicle Pettus of Mines and Minerals History of the Cariby Islands Brents History of France Browns Entries in two Parts Sir Roger Manly's History of the Wars of Denmark Lord Bridgmans Conveyances Lord Cokes 2d 3d. and 4th Institutes Huttons Reports with New References Modern Reports Leys Reports Hetleys Reports The Ten Volumes of Year Books with New References Edward the Second Published by Serjeant Maynard Officina Brevium A Catalogue of all the Common and Statute Law-Books of this Realm to this present Year 1684. Quarto Dr. Littletons Dictionary the Second Edition Gouldmans Dictionary Coles Dictionary Mieges French Dictionary The Travels of the Patriarchs A Discourse of the Laws Civil and Ecclesiastical Doctrina Placitandi Moyles Entries Compleat Clerk Dr. Parker of the Law of Nature Sheppards Grand Abridgment Dr. Haywards two Sermons before the King A Collection of the Cases relating to Church Communion Written by several Ministers in and about London Counter-Scuffle Mandevils Travels History of the Seven Champions Dr. Sherlocks Sermon on the Discovery of the Plot. The Difference of the Case between the separation of the Protestants from the Church of Rome and the separation of Dissenters from the Church of England Medicina Curiosa Octavo Mieges French Dictionary The London Practice of Physick being the whole Practick Part of Dr Willis's Works Dr. Salmons Dispensatory his Doron Medicum Several Tracts of Mr. Hales of Eaton Bishop Sandersons Life Coles Dictionary Latin and English Bishop Wilkins Sermons never before Extant Principles and Duty of Natural Religion Filmers Patriarcha Mieges French Grammar with a Vo cabu lary and Dialogues short French Grammar Mieges Present State of Denmark Cosmography Berniers Travels Art how to know Men. Pools English Parnassus Dr. Whitby of Idolatry Dr. Hinckley and Mr. Baxters Letters Sheppards Actions for Slander Action on the Case for Deeds Blounts Antient Tenures Compleat Solicitor entring Clerk and Attorney Touchstone for Gold and Silver Pettyt's Rights of the Commons Miscellanies The Egyptian History Atwoods Jani Anglorum facies Nova Sir John Pettus of the Constitutions of Parliaments Russian Impostor Ogilbys Aesops Fables with Cuts Lawrence's Interest of Ireland A New Book of Instruments French Monarchy Anglers vade Meum Scarons Novels Meriton of Dreams Clerks Tutor Brown of Fines and Recoveries Kitchin Physick Posing of the Parts Duodecimo Heylins help to History Lukins Chief Interest of Man Help to Discourse Mothers Blessing Grotius de veritate Relig. Christ Bishop Lauds Devotions Ladys Calling Vaughan of Coins and Coynage Meritons Guide for Constables Landlords Law Phillips Principles of the Law Manwaring of Consumptions Catalogue of Law Books Pharniacopeia Londoniensis Butlers Rhetoric Lucians Dialogues Greek and Latin Tullies Select Epistles FINIS
we carry away at the same time the Fruit that ought to form it self there and we leave but an end of a Branch which brings nought but Wood. I say it once again the Fruit comes but at the end of the shoot of the two first Saps if we Lop away this end we carry away the Fruit and we blockishly deprive our selves of that which we seek with so much passion It s a remark which we ought well to Observe for the Sap having spent and as it were wearied it self after having past all along a Branch does not exert it self with so much vigour and its motion is not so impetuous nor so nimble at the end of a Branch as in the beginning of it also it employs it self rather to form Buds for Flowers when it acts mildly than when it agitates it self with so much praecipitation Because Fruit with Stones shoot more briskly and more in confusion than Pear-trees we must also take good heed to Lop them with discretion These Trees having shot forth vigorously a Branch during one year and having produced Fruit there lose their force in this same Branch the year following and shoot forth nought but Scions here and there but which are laden with an infinite number of Fruit and the greatest part of these same Scions dye the year following as well as all the annual buds of the Tree When a great Branch is old we ought to cut it in its Source as you may see in the Figure following Fig 6 A. Wood worn out of three or four years B. The place where it ought to be cut C. Young Wood of the year which ought not to be cut in the middle D. Flower or Fruit-buds of the precedent year which are dry The Nectarine and the Peach-tree being of the nature of those Trees which shoot much in their tops we must not hope to be able to subdue them as Pear-trees and force them to fill themselves well in the lower part if we Lop them as these Trees that is to say if we Lop their Branches in the middle we hinder them indeed from shooting in their tops but they do not fill themselves for this in their lower part they mount always and by cutting them after that manner no Fruit comes of it and we kill them in a short time In general the Plum-tree and the Cherry-tree delight more in Lopping than the Apple-tree but all three of them do not delight in it as much as the Pear-tree which is the only Tree that endures it best We must take nought from these three first Trees but the dead Wood unless we will form them at first for Bush-trees or Espaliers Because the Corand-tree has much Pith and that it comes easily of a slip its nature does not endure it to be Lopt in the middle of its Branches no more than the Peach-tree above all we must take good care of cutting it when we set it We ought in an old Corand-tree to cut near the Root a Branch past bearing in order to renew it and to cut also from the lower part some young shoots of the year to hinder it from being too much confus'd The young shoots which we preserve serve to renew it when we cut it in its old Wood. Nevertheless tho' it does not delight in being Lopt we make Bushes of it and form it in an Espalier which is beautiful to behold at the time that it is laden with Fruit. I say the same of the Mulberry-tree and of the Fig-tree which cannot endure the knife by reason of the abundance of their Pith the last especially is visibly damnified by it unless we Lop from them great useless Branches for rendring them regular and neither of them can be made to grow low they love too much the free and open Air. Medlar-trees and Service-trees naturally grow high the former endure the knife much more than the latter The Portugal Quince-trees and the Pomegranate-trees of Spain will not be Lopt because they bear their Fruit at the end of their Branches Nevertheless we may take from them entire Branches which cause a confusion and which are old and cut near the Trunk the useless Prodigals which are usual enough in these sorts of Trees As for the other Prodigals which embellish the Tree and which in four or five years will yield Fruit we ought not to Lop them Care must be taken to cover the great Wounds of Trees with a Plaister made of a pound of Drogue a flambeau four Ounces of Rosine and two Ounces of Sheeps Sewet When we walk in our Garden in a fine day of the Month of April we must have in our hand a Magdaleon of the Plaister ev'n now mentioned we must cut a little of it with a knife and after having wrought it betwixt the moistn'd Fingers for rendring it a little soft we must apply it on the great Wounds which we had forgot to seal in the Month of March. And to the end that this Plaister may keep the longer on the Wounds we must put on it a bit of paper as a binder which we must press on softly with the Finger to the end that the heat of the Summer making the Plaister melt the paper may press it stay it and glew it more to the Wood it is what we ought to do in the two other Loppings following CHAP. II. The Lopping of Fruit-trees at the beginning of the Month of May. PRoperly speaking it is not a Lopping that is done to Trees at this time they are as yet in the motion of their Sap. We cut but Scions which tho' Fertile of themselves bring in the mean time a great prejudice to the Fruit at the beginning of May we must therefore take a particular care to cut away the useless Branches which grow by the Buds for Fruit and especially in Pear-trees that is to say to cut away at the second knot a little Scion which comes among the clusters of Pears to delay this is not good the Sap which ought to Communicate it self to the Fruit is carried into the shoot which draws a part of the humour of the Fruit-bud where the Pears are fastn'd which causes either that their Stem drys for want of Sap or that they come very small You may see what I mean in the following Figure Fig. 7 A. A shoot which comes on the Fruit-bud through the abundance of the Sap. B. The place where you must cut it CHAP. III. The Lopping of Fruit-trees at the beginning of June IN the Decrease of the Moon of May which happens often in June you must Lop Trees for the second time but with more moderation than in February for we ought never in June to cut great Branches and properly speaking it is but a relopping of Trees We must wait above all till the Sap be ended according to the Maxim which we have alleag'd before and it will be good to repeat it here Lop in Fair weather in the Decrease of the Moon at the end