96 



General Care of Trees 



may be made (fuile close to the 1)U(1; if earlier, it will be safer 

 to lea\'e a stub of a quarter to a half inch in length. Or 

 the stub may be left an inch or more at first cutting, and 



after the bud has started, the 

 stub may be cut back to near 

 the base of the new shoot. 



The rapidity with which 

 wounds, especially large ones, 

 are covered up by callus for- 

 mation depends on various 

 conditions. Different species 

 behave dilTerently in this re- 

 spect, but finally the general 

 vigor of the plant, its age 

 and its condition of nutrition, 

 i.e., the amount of food ma- 

 terials it can elaborate, de- 

 termine the rate of progress. 

 The size and number of the 

 wounds, their smoothness or 

 roughness, their location on 

 the bole, whether or not a 

 stump has been improperly 

 left and what its length is 

 all these facts have an influence; indeed, conditions are 

 so variable that it is impossible to give defmite rules, save 

 in a given case, as to how severe the pruning may be. If, 

 however, the wounds ha\'e been properly dressed and kept 

 covered against water and fungi, it does not matter how 

 long it may take them to close, although the danger of the 

 deterioration of the antiseptic covering naturally increases 

 with time. 



Small wounds are covered relatively much more quickly 



Fig. 26. — Correct method of trim- 

 ming, a stutj being left one-quariL-r 

 to one-half an inch above the next 

 lower bud or branchlet. 



