84 General Care of Trees 



consumption to nutrition and light supply. On the contrary, 

 by anticipating this natural process through timely artificial 

 pruning and trimming, still further advantage can be secured; 

 for, by interfering early and limiting the competition, the 

 vitality of the remaining branches is increased, so that 

 pruning acts very much Hke soil im])rovement. 



The common practice in pruning is to cut out the dead 

 wood; the proper practice is to prune in time so as to avoid 

 as much as possible the making of dead wood. 



By judicious and systematic trimming (heading in), both 

 the form and the health of the trees are improved, and in 



fruit trees even the fruit-bearing 

 can be influenced, — but this 

 is an art by itself. Such trim- 

 ming should be done annually 

 or biennially, when only small 

 Fig. 13. — Hedge shears for changes at a time are made, the 



pruning. ° ' 



branchlets cut are small, and 

 the tree economy is only slightly disturbed. The branch 

 system being kept shortened, the roots are much more likely 

 to suffice in supplying the needed water even in drouthy 

 seasons, while enough dormant buds will develop to fill out 

 the crown as much as is needful. 



Thus by timely and systematic attention we can produce 

 just such forms and conditions in a tree as we desire, instead 

 of leaving it to the accident of natural development. 



Indeed, in such light-needing species as the Sycamore 

 or Silver Maple, which are apt to thin out in the interior of 

 their crown, the crown may be considerably improved and 

 the foliage cover thickened by such cutting back of branches 

 and consequent formation of new branchlets, which till out 

 the otherwise thin crown. Another advantage of cutting 

 "or heading back" the annual shoots in rapid growing 



