134 An American Fruit-Farm 



of necessity. A storm breaks down the tree or 

 disease infects a limb. Then we do as best we 

 can, and may be obHged to cut away a large limb. 

 This shocks the tree, possibly even to death. 

 Disease in the form of myriads of spores of fungi, 

 at times floating in the air, promptly enters the 

 wound. To prevent this we seal it against such 

 invasion by a coat of tar or paint, which will resist 

 wind and weather. If the scar is not too great, and 

 the tree too old or too weak, the wound will heal 

 over under an ample growth of bark. But we 

 must not keep the tree ever healing scars. It is 

 like keeping a man in hospital. In cutting the 

 limb we make the cut at an angle to shed water, 

 and as close to the body, or main stalk, as may be 

 so as to give the tree as little healing to do as we 

 may. Bad trimming kills as many trees, or makes 

 them unfruitful, as do fungi or insects. The art of 

 pruning cannot be learned wholly from books. 

 It is the tree we are conserving. Nowadays we 

 train our fruit-trees to head and fruit low, for ease 

 in harvest. We head them back at every trim- 

 ming; we admit sunshine from circumference to 

 center and seek constantly to secure short, straight, 

 strong trunks, with branches well balanced to the 

 four winds. The rule is to keep the top in balance. 

 The time to trim is when your pruning knife is 

 open and sharp and you see what should be done. 

 Winter, the leafless time, is usually when the 

 trimming is done, and chiefly because the orchard- 

 ist can then best attend to it. In simimer the 



