The Canadian Horticulturist. 3^7 



THE BEST TIME TO TRIM AN ORCHARD. 



OMEBODY has said that the "best time to trim an orchard is when 

 ^'' his saw is sharp." While this may sound smart and taking, the 



direction is misleading and very unsatisfactory ; and the probability 

 is that this man's orchard would be trimmed very often. 



It is not a good time when the buds begin to swell, for the 



stump will not heal over readily, but will continue to bleed through 



the season and perhaps for years, and decay set in. 



It is not a good time just as the tree comes into full bloom only to take 



off small limbs or suckers while standing on the ground, for then the sliver is 



forming under the bark, and standing on a limb or leaning a ladder against the 



tree with a man's weight on it, the bark wonld be badly bruised and torn. 



On the whole, the best time, in my judgment, is between the time of 

 gathering the fruit and hard freezing weather, so the stump will become seasoned 

 before the sap starts in the spring. Sometimes a good opportunity occurs after 

 the severe weather is over and the snow is still deep, with a good crust. 



First, the time, then the how. A fine sharp saw is essential, and if it has 

 a narrow point all the better ; and, indeed, a compass saw is sometimes very 

 convenient ; but by no means use a saw with teeth on both sides, as some un- 

 wittingly advise, for many a limb would be badly cut. 



That too much and hap-hazard sawing is done in orchards goes without 

 saying — judgment and good common sense are needed here as really as in 

 guiding the ship of state or in planning a military campaign. Limbs should be 

 taken off close, and the stumps made smooth, using a sharp knife if needful 

 It is a great eyesore to a sensitive man to see stumps cut at every conceivable 

 angle ; and one, two, three or six inches long. This unsightly appearance 

 remains with little change from year to year. Nature, to be sure, is doing her 

 best to hid the deformity, but the annual deposit of new wood is small and a 

 long time must pass before the blemishes are overgrown. So then saw close 

 and pare smooth, let the stumps season a few days and cover them with paint, 

 or better, with thin shellac, and in a few years they will be covered with new 

 bark. Dead limbs need to be cut out, for there is no beauty or profit in dead 

 wood. As a rule the suckers should be taken out, only, perhaps, after taken out 

 a large branch an open space is left, which can be filled by training in a sucker. 

 When limbs cross, one, and sometimes more, should be removed, and when a 

 limb menaces some other limb, if it cannot be taught by tying to mind its own 

 business it had better be taken out. We often find tangles and bunches of 

 parallel branches ; these to be carefully thinned out, so as to make a clean, open 

 systematic head ; but not a hollow globe. 



In taking off a limb of much size — say an inch or more in diameter, it is 

 well either to saw the stump eight or ten inches long and then saw again, cutting 



