PRUNING. 87 



off the bark. Do the principal pruning in the 

 spring. By all means avoid fall or winter pruning, 

 as it is apt to start new wood at a time when it is 

 most exposed to damage from frost. Cut off all 

 dead wood, and up to or a little into the living 

 wood. Thereby the wound heals more readily. As 

 a general rule cut off all diseased branches, es- 

 pecially if they have become so far diseased as to fail 

 to develop healthy leaves. Do not trim up the 

 trunk too high. Encourage the lower branches to 

 extend themselves well around the trunk and far 

 over the surface of the ground. If they do not 

 touch the ground they are not too low. As the 

 tree grows these branches will continue to droop 

 nearer the ground until the lowest may have to be 

 cut off after a while ; but this late cutting off is 

 much better than to have the trunk exposed either 

 to sun or cold. 



Give and keep an open head to the tree. To do 

 this, select the most vigorous lateral branches, leav- 

 ing some on all sides of the tree, so as to obtain a 

 head as uniformly balanced as possible. After cut- 

 ting off the other branches close to the trunk, trim 

 up these selected branches almost to a point, leaving 

 only a few of the terminal smaller branches. When 

 this is done the tree will look like a skeleton, and 

 you will likely conclude you have used the knife 

 too freely. But if this pruning has been done in 

 the spring, and you keep the * ' water' ' shoots pulled 

 off the trunk, and cultivate well, you will find the 



