SUMMER METING AT BROOKFIELD. 99 



planting- trees is in the fall, when they have no leaves by which the 

 water can be evaporated. By spring the ground will be settled around 

 the roots, and the spongioles will make their appearance gradually, as 

 the young leaves, the growth of the former, will be able to keep pace 

 with that of the latter. 



STEMS. 



The stem serves the plant mainly as a frame-work on which to 

 spread out its leaves, flowers and fruits ; and, just as the roots should 

 be properly spread out in the soil so as to absorb from it the mineral 

 matter needed by the plant, so the stem and branches should be so dis- 

 posed as to properly expose the leaves, flowers and fruit to the air and 

 light. A root does not slide forward as it grows, nor does a stem grow 

 in length from below. Those who prune young trees should keep this 

 in mind, and remember that a branch that starts from a trunk at a cer- 

 tain height will never get any higher from the ground at its base. The 

 bark serves as a protection for the young growing cells that are found 

 just under it. When a tree is girdled by cutting away a ring of bark all 

 around it, the tree dies because all the living cells will be killed at that 

 place, and those above are entirely cut off from those below. In some 

 trees, however, the layer of living cells, or at least cells capable of con- 

 veying sap, is very thick, and such trees often live for a long time after 

 being girdled even deep into the wood. There are several important 

 points in training the branches of fruit trees that are often overlooked. 

 The first is to get the branches spread in such a manner that the air 

 and light has free access to all the leaves, but not so much as to leave 

 the trunk and main branches unprotected from the intense heat of a 

 nearly vertical sun ; the second, to train them in such a way that when 

 loaded with fruit, the strain will not tend to split them from the trunk. 

 The cells of wood are squeezed very long after they stop growing; 

 therefore it is hard to break them across, but they separate lengthwise 

 easily. If a trunk separates into two or more equal branches, each 

 branch grows like a separate tree, but since they generally lean much 

 to one side, they are apt to split apart when loaded with fruit. This 

 may be avoided by keeping the branches subordinate to the main trunk, 

 and the sub-branches subordinate' to the main branches. Another 

 point is, to avoid the necessity of cutting off large limbs in pruning. 

 The pruner should try to form a correct notion of the position of the 

 young branches when they get full grown, and cut off all that would be 

 in the way before they get large. It is sometimes advised that the 

 bark of the trunk should be cut lengthwise, for fear that it will get too 

 tight and keep the trunk from growing; but this notion is absurd since 



