86 FLORIDA FRUITS ORANGES. 



latter being apt to slip and tear the bark. When the knife 

 must be used, however, let the cut be upward rather than 

 downward, as this lessens the danger of damage to the 

 limb. Bear in mind that a rough, haggled cut does not 

 readily heal, and very often never heals, thus injuring the 

 tree permanently; and for this reason, when limbs have 

 been sawed off, the cut should be pared smooth with a 

 knife, and then covered with thick shellac varnish or graft- 

 ing wax to exclude sun and rain until healed, otherwise 

 disease may be communicated to the whole tree. 



All water sprouts that is, sprouts starting near the 

 ground should be pinched off as soon as they appear; 

 they are robbers of the legitimate branches above them. 

 Watch carefully for dead limbs, and cut them away as 

 quickly as possible, taking a portion of the live wood with 

 them to be sure that none of it remains. " Once upon a 

 time" it was thought though a dead limb was unsightly 

 and useless it did no actual harm, but it has recently been 

 proven otherwise. A dead limb not only evaporates the 

 sap that should go to the nutriment of the tree, drawing 

 it up by capillary attraction like a sponge, but the ele- 

 ments of decay it contains flow back into the tree and so 

 promote disease ; therefore, never let a dead limb remain 

 to counteract all your good works. Some branches there 

 will be, not dead but diseased, so that they either develop 

 no leaves, or else sickly ones. Let these be pruned away 

 also for the same reason. 



Do not trim the branches up high on the trunk ; encour- 

 age low growth, especially while the trees are young. This 

 is Nature's plan for protecting the tender bark from the 

 sun, and should not be interfered with. As the tree grows 

 taller cut away the branches gradually, until, when the 

 tree is in bearing, you can just get under it by slightly 

 stooping, but can stand upright against the trunk. The 



