58 



APPLE GROWING IN CALIFORNIA. 



STUBS. 



Notwithstanding the fact that the practice of leaving stubs in an 

 orchard when pruning, has been condemned by expert horticulturists 

 in practically every publication on pruning, there are still a great 

 many trees to be seen in some of our otherwise splendid orchards, with 

 these unsightly and dangerous stubs, bearing testimony to the fact that 

 pruners either did not understand their business or did not care how 

 the work was done. 



Branches should always be cut off close to other branches or trunks 

 from which they emanate, in which case healing will take place and the 

 wounds will in time be covered over with new bark, provided that rot 



Natural brace 



to strengthen branches. (Original) 



fungi, with their attendant decay, do not develop. If stubs of any size 

 are left on apple trees, they always die back to the point where the cut 

 should have been made and very frequently dying does not stop at 

 this point, but the trunk or larger limbs are also involved. 



The reason for this dying back is very clear, when we consider how 

 the tree gets its supply of plant food that enters into its growth. As 

 every orchardist knows, this food is taken from the ground in solution 

 in the water of the soil, and is carried upward through the sap-wood to 

 the leaves. There, through a complex process it is elaborated or con- 

 verted into starch and sugar and becomes available food, which then 

 journeys downward through the cambium or growing layer of the bark. 

 11 is then capable of healing wounds and entering into the life of trees. 

 Before going to the leaves in its crude form there could be no healing. 

 Knowing this it can easily be seen why dying back takes place in the 

 stubs that are left by rnivloss or thoughtless primers. The apple tree 



