APPLICATION OF THE SYSTEM. 25 



Unskilful or injudicious pruning may completely 

 ruin a tree, and the difficulty of obtaining labor 

 capable of doing such work intelligently causes, no 

 doubt, many arboriculturists to completely neglect 

 pruning of every kind. 



The Dendroscope. The tree requiring pruning 

 should be carefully studied from the ground, that 

 the operator may be able to judge intelligently 

 which branches should be removed or shortened in 

 order to reduce it to the desired shape. This may at 

 first seem difficult to beginners in the art of pruning ; 

 and a dendroscope, the name suggested for a simple 

 little contrivance, the use of which is shown at Fig. 

 21, may be here used with advantage. A dendroscope 

 may be made from a piece of thin board or card-board 

 (a playing card answers the purpose), in which a hole 

 of the shape it is desired to reduce the tree to has been 

 cut (see Figs. 12, 13, 14, 15). Across the middle 

 of the hole, from top to bottom, a piece of fine wire 

 is stretched to serve as a guide to the eye. 



Holding the dendroscope at the level of the eye, 

 with the wire opposite the centre of the trunk of the 

 tree to be studied, the operator approaches the tree 

 until the bottom of the cut falls on the trunk at 

 the ground line. It is easy to see at a glance with 

 the aid of this contrivance what operations should 

 be performed in order to reduce the tree to the 

 desired shape. 1 



1 A glance at the dendroscope placed at the end of this volume will 

 show the advantage of using such an aid to the eye. 



