REMOVING LARGE LI^^IBS. 



185 



Fig. 19 may prove very serious to a tree. "Whenever it is 

 necessary to amputate a large or long branch, a cut should 





m 



i. 19. Umbbreakinedown 

 fiuui cut wrongly made. 



1)6 made from the under side of the 

 branch, at a distance of two or three feet 

 from the trunk, and should extend half 

 May through its diameter, as in Fig. 20, 

 line A ; another cut, B, should then be 

 made farther out, extending down into 

 the branch until it falls. The first cut 

 will prevent the limb from breaking fi 

 and splitting off and the bark from tear 

 ing down on the tree. The stump may then be removed 

 close to the trunk on the line C, cutting first from below, 

 and supporting the stump so that crushing or tearing of 

 the bark may again be avoided. This 

 method wall prevent injury to the tree 

 and guard against serious accidents which 

 sometimes occur when the limb is first 

 cut too close to the tree. In such cases 

 the outer end of the l)ranch striking the 

 ground has sometimes caused the inner 

 Fig. 20. The proper method end to rcbouud and strike or throw down 

 of removing a large limb. ^^^ workmau. Whatever method is em- 

 ployed, the wound should be made perfectly smooth and even 

 with the outline of the trunk by cutting or planing its sur- 

 face, which should then be immediately 

 covered with coal tar.* On fruit trees, 

 however, it is well never to remove a 

 large excrescence or shoulder (such as is 

 sometimes formed at the base of a liml)) 

 if the wood is sound, but to cut the 

 limb at its junction with the shoulder. 

 Large wounds are often made in the 

 tree trunk by the teeth of horses, the 

 breaking down of large limbs or in other 

 accidental ways. AVhen such an acci- 

 dent occurs as is shown in Fig. 21, it should receive imme- 



* If the roughened surface left by a saw-cut is smoothed, it lessens the danger 

 of decay; and if the edges of the wound are trimmed down to the outline of the 

 tree, the wound is more readily covered by the occUiding callus. 



Fig. 21. A trunk injured by 

 the breaking of a large limb. 



