HOW TO RENEW OLD TREES }23 



such a wound heals over perfectly. The shears, if of good pattern 

 and sharp, also make a very good cut, but there is always some little 

 injury to the bark on the side opposite the entry of the blade. On 

 small cuts, say three-quarters of an inch or less, if the blade is kept 

 very sharp, the resistance does not make sufficient injury to the bark 

 to seriously consider, and the speed with which the shears can be 

 used renders them the main reliance for all the smaller pruning. 

 Nearly all styles of hand shears are used in this State. 



There are, also, two-hand shears, which are very powerful, and 

 enable one to work very quickly. When kept well sharpened they 

 are very effective tools. There are a number of styles in use, both 

 home-made and imported. 



Still another arrangement of shears is mounted on a pole, the 

 cutting blade being operated by a cord, and having a spring to throw 

 the blade back. The pole is jointed, so that one or more lengths can 

 be used. With this device one can stand on the ground and shorten 

 in the top shoots of a tree very handily. 



For larger cuts than can be made with the pruning knife or with 

 hand shears, there are pruning saws of different styles, of which two 

 styles are chiefly used. One has a frame made of the best spring 

 steel, constructed somewhat on the plan of a butcher's saw, except 

 that the saw blade is much narrower ; and instead of being station- 

 ary, it revolves so that the pruner is enabled to adjust the blade to 

 cut at any angle, as is often necessary to do when cutting where 

 limbs grow close together, and where it would be impossible to use 

 an ordinary saw of a wider blade. The blade is only one-fourth to 

 one-half inch wide, and therefore not liable to get pinched in the cut. 

 Strength is imparted by a tension screw under the handle, which 

 tightens the blade. The blade is easily detached by slackening the 

 tension screw, and lifting the blade out of the slot in the clutches 

 at each end. The blade can be thus reversed and made to cut with 

 a push or a pull, as may be desired. 



Another popular saw is the curved pruning saw, with twelve and 

 fourteen-inch blades, which cuts with a pull. 



During recent years it has been possible to find quite full assort- 

 ments of pruning tools at the hardware and general merchandise 

 stores in all our fruit districts where these devices can be compared 

 and selection made according to individual preference, for there can 

 be no best tools for all men and all uses. 



RENEWING OLD TREES 



Improving and renewing trees by cutting back and grafting has 

 already been considered under the head of propagation. It is often 

 desirable to renew trees of a satisfactory variety, and this is done 

 simply by cutting back when the tree is dormant. Cutting back was 

 formerly done early in the winter, before the rise of the sap begins, 

 but more recently it has been seen that the exposure of large cut 

 surfaces for weeks or months before growth begins, results in drying 

 and shrinkage of the bark and checking of the wood, both of which 

 are avoided by amputation later in the dormant period or during the 



