PLANTING AND MAINTENANCE 135 



of freshly made improper cuts. Why it is that 

 most people seem unable to bring themselves to 

 cut through a limb at its very base, clean down 

 at the trunk from which it springs, I cannot im- 

 agine; but for one tree properly pruned by such 

 close cutting there are fifty, perhaps twice that 

 number, showing unhealed stumps all the way 

 from half an inch to four or five inches long. 



There is just one right way to cut a branch, 

 large or small, from another branch or trunk; 

 that is, to lay the saw which is to do the cutting, 

 flat against the trunk, and thus make a cut so 

 close that practically all traces of the branch 

 removed are smoothed away. Such a wound 

 will be larger around than we are accustomed to 

 see, to be sure, but its diameter is of no real 

 consequence. The point is to make its surface 

 so flat and smooth and easily covered that the 

 bark — or skin — will quickly grow over it; and 

 this it will often do in an incredibly short time, 

 leaving sometimes a hardly perceptible scar. 



Insects and Pests 

 The San Jose scale is now so common that pre- 

 ventive measures are advisable even though its 

 presence is not actually discovered on one's own 

 trees and shrubs. The lime-sulphur wash or 

 the kerosene emulsion, both of which may be 



