HIGH AND LOW HEADS 



197 



troversy is partly the result of confusion of ideas, 

 and partly of differing mental ideals and of va- 

 rying climates. Two factors are chiefly con- 

 cerned in these disputes, the question of ease of 

 cultivation, and the question of injury to the 

 trunk by sun -scald. It is the commonest notion 

 that short trunks necessarily make low heads, and 

 yet anyone who can see a tree should know bet- 

 ter. The number of trunks which a tree has, does 

 not determine the direction of the leaf -bearing 

 limbs. The tree in 

 Fig. 123 can be 

 worked around as 

 easily as it could be 

 if it had only one 

 long trunk. In fact, 

 branches which start 

 high from a trunk 

 are very apt to be- 

 come horizontal and 

 to droop. There must 

 be a certain number 

 of main or scaffold 

 limbs to form the 

 head. If these limbs 

 are taken out compar- 121. 

 atively low, they may 

 be trained in an upright direction and hold their 

 weight and position. If they are started out very 

 high, they will not take such an upright direction, 



Headed-in plum tree. 

 September. 



