GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF ORCHARDS. 191 



Hence, when a tree has been neglected so long that the en- 

 tire top has become a dense hedge of brush, with the branch- 

 es all intertwining so closely that a person can scarcely 

 climb into the top, the first thing to be done is to commence 

 the work of thinning out the supernumerary branches. Per- 

 haps Dame Nature has already begun to prune in her own 

 slow manner, as she prunes forest-trees, by withholding the 

 annual flow of sap from certain branches until they die and 

 drop to the ground. A good pruning-saw will be found the 

 most convenient instrument for this purpose. Do not make 

 a clean sweep of every branch, but thin out gradually, here 

 and there, cutting away the poorer boughs first. Let the 

 aim be to thin out the crooked and weak twigs and branch- 

 es first. Where two limbs cross each other, so that one 

 rides on the other and interferes with its growth, let the 

 poorest one be cut away. Let the centre of the top be thin- 

 ned out to such an extent that a person can climb around 

 among the boughs. If the extremities of the limbs are 

 very bushy, take the pruning-shears (Fig. 53), and thin out 

 the old twigs, so that new spray may be produced, which 

 will bear fruit. Let the branches be cut off smoothly, as 

 directed on page 128, Fig. 57, at a, after which take the ket- 

 tle of liquid grafting- wax (see p. 55) into the tree-top, and 

 smear all the wounds. This treatment will give a neglect- 

 ed tree such a start, that, if the soil is rich, a crop of fine 

 fruit may be expected in two years after the pruning. 



Renewing Stunted Trees. It frequently occurs that ap- 

 ple-trees and the same is true of other fruit-trees after 

 being removed from the place where they sprang from the 

 seed, or from the nursery-row, fail to grow at all satisfac- 

 torily, and, in many instances, they barely live from year to 

 year. The difficulty in such cases is, the trees were too old 

 to be taken up with removing a ball of earth without the 

 roots ; or the tap-root and a large proportion of the laterals 



