220 THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



mouth cutting ; and the blades being thin, flat, and curved at the edge, they cut clean, 

 little injury being done to the bark. The small sizes are well suited for summer 

 pruning, the larger for operating on one-year-old shoots, or cutting out branches as 

 thick as the little finger. The great defect of all secateurs is their indifferent quality. 

 They ought to have the temper and quality of ladies' scissors, and the edges as keen as 

 a lancet. Then the blades, not parting company their whole length, would make a cut 

 equal to a knife, clean, smooth, and best for healing. 



Tree-pruners. These, in approved makes, combine the clean cut of the knife, 

 expedition of the secateur, with the power of the crab- claw shears or small saw, and 

 enable the primer to dispense with steps and ladder in pruning tall trees. There are 

 many forms of tree-pruner, but the principle is similar in all ; therefore a description 

 of one suffices for the whole. We have selected for exemplification that of which we 

 have had considerable experience and found efficient, namely, the " Standard," invented 

 by the Standard Manufacturing Company, Derby ; but Coppins' (Croydon) pruners are 

 equally good. 



The Standard tree-pruner, though ingenious, is very simple, consisting of a pole 

 in different lengths up to 14 feet, hook, metal rod, lever, and blade. The hook is 

 made double, so that the knife has a support on both sides, which admits of its being 

 made thin, reducing the resistance of the wood, and a smooth cut is consequently 

 made, whilst the branch, encircled by the hook, is altogether under the control of the 

 operator until the portion to be removed is severed. By means of a hook fitted to the 

 pruner instead of the blade, it is converted into a long-handled switch useful in 

 removing dead wood and thinning crowded growths in old trees; or, with a saw affixed, 

 it becomes efficient for cutting larger branches than the hook itself will encircle. In 

 cutting a large branch with the long-handled pruning-saw, it is advisable to use the 

 pruner for lopping off the smaller branches, and still further lighten the branch by 

 cutting off a portion with the saw, and cutting the branch partly through on the 

 under side at the desired point so as to guard against fracturing and tearing the 

 bark off beyond the cut. The curved saw, having the teeth formed to cut in an 

 opposite direction to an ordinary saw, is best for sawing at a distance from the 

 ground. 



The aerial hook, with barrel-end chisel, fitted on a straight hardwood pole, is useful 

 for cutting off branches close to the stem by a stroke with a mallet on the opposite 

 end of the pole. Dead wood and small twigs are readily removed with the hook. 



