STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. I27 



the upward passage of crude materials and the downward course 

 of the elaborated food we are able to explain many common 

 observations in the orcliard. Thus we can readily understand 

 why, if the wood is sound, a tree may go on growing for some 

 time or sometimes recover after it has been nearly or partially 

 girdled. However, if not enough manufactured food can be 

 sent back down to nourish the roots they will gradually lose 

 their power to take up crude food substances from the soil and 

 the death of the tree will result. When we resort to bridge 

 grafting we are simply putting in what may be called an arti- 

 ficial pipe line to bridge the gap and in this way convey manu- 

 factured food down to the roots that they may be suitably 

 nourished and thus be able to perform their proper function. 



Before closing I wish to call attention to one more practical 

 point. In pruning fruit and shade trees it is practically impos- 

 sible to get the majority of people to make the cut at the 

 proper place. From what we have learned regar.ling the course 

 of the downward movement of the elaborated food materials, 

 the region of growth and consequently the region in which new 

 tisisues must be formed for covering wounds, it is perfectly evi- 

 dent that the cut must be made parallel with and as close to the 

 main trunk or branch as it can possibly be made. The surface 

 must be smooth and no projecting edges of wood left at the 

 margins of the wound to prevent the new tissues from closing 

 over it. Such a wound will completely heal in due time, pro- 

 vided the exposed wood is properly protected with a coating of 

 pure white lead and linseed oil. A cut made farther away 

 from the main trunk or branch makes a much smaller wound 

 but such a wound either never heals at all or if it does heal it 

 takes much longer than when the cut is properly made. Fre- 

 quently the bark extending out beyond the line of the trunk 

 dies away, leaving an unsightly stub which later decays, and 

 the decay thus started is communicated to the interior of the 

 trunk, leading finally to the decay and death of the tree. Many 

 orchards have been converted into graveyards through the lack 

 of observation and the ignorance of fundamental principles of 

 growth and nutrition, as applied to apple trees, on the part of 

 men who pruned them or failed to prune them. 



