GENERAL PRA CTICE. ROOT-PRUNING. 



175 



on the face of the wound from between the bark and the wood. This serves the two- 

 fold purpose of healing over the wound, and for the emission of roots, as previously 

 explained under " Cuttings." Nevertheless it is important to know how the cut should 

 be made in pruning roots. In the illustration (Fig. 43) several forms of cut, with 

 their results, are represented, namely, 1, an "anchor," or side-root, severed with a 

 sharp spade in transplanting a tree. This is the proper cut, as proved by experts 

 practising it. The pruner, taking a lifted tree in the left hand, holds its roots upwards, 

 and cuts off the ends of any that are jagged, or shortens straggling roots by a clean cut 

 with the knife from behind towards his person. The result is an upward cut, as 

 shown in 2. In consequence of the root being longest on the upper side cellular tissue 



Fig. 43. ROOT-PRUNING. RIGHT AND WRONG CUTS. 



forms there, and new roots are emitted as in 3. A root detached with a blunt spade, 

 or in a bungling manner, is shown in 4. Such wounds do not heal, for the tissue 

 is damaged, and on planting must decay or die back, the condition twelve months 

 after planting being shown in 5. It ought not to have been planted in the jagged 

 condition, but cut back to sound tissue, when its extremity would appear as in 6. 



In 7 the downward cut is represented. The planter holds the tree to be planted 

 in his left hand and, with the knife in his right, slashes off the ends of the broken root 

 by a downward cut. It is a clean cut as in 8, but the result is that the lower part of 

 the root is longest, just as it should not be, though a callus forms there and roots in 

 due course protrude as in 9. Now look at 10 there is the identical cut made by the 

 sharp spade of the tree-lifter in 1. It is a clean cut, as in 11, and the result is fresh 



