ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 



29; 



Written for the " ARBOR DAY MANUAL " 



PRUNING TREES. 



AS trees grow thickly together in the forest, the lower limbs die and drop off, 

 while they are small; but in case of isolated trees, the conditions are so 

 different, that unless pruned, they are often ill shaped and unsightly. 



Many people erroneously imagine that as a tree grows, the limbs will be raised 

 higher, whereas, from increased weight, they droop and become really lower. 



The common practice is to neglect pruning shade trees till the view is 

 obstructed by large low limbs which are then heroically sawed off, leaving large 

 knots and scars which must ever remain to offend the eye. These useless 

 branches were grown at the expense of the main trunk ; such trees can never 

 present the fine and majestic appearance of those which have a nearly uniform 

 diameter from the ground to the lowest limbs. 



In imitation of nature's process in the forest, all limbs and sprouts should be 

 removed as soon as possible up to a desired point ; this can usually be done 

 with an ordinary knife, or even the hand. In considering the removal of a 

 sprout, the question should be : Will a branch be desirable at that point? If 

 not, let it not remain to rob desirable parts. The height at which branching 

 should be allowed to commence must be decided by individual taste which will 

 also indicate the lopping off, at other points, of those branches which are ill- 

 formed, and not in harmony with the general appearance. Dead and decaying 

 limbs should be promptly removed. H. R. SAXFORD, A. M. 



THE BLUE-BIRD. 



WHEX Nature made the blue-bird she wished to propitiate both the sky and 

 the earth, so she gave him the color of the one on his back and the hue of 

 the other on his breast, and ordained that his appearance in spring should 

 denote that the strife and war between these two elements was at an end. He 

 is the peace-harbinger; in him the celestial and the terrestrial strike hands and 

 are fast friends. He means the furrow and he means the warmth ; he means all 

 the soft, waving influences of the spring on the one hand, and the retreating 

 footsteps of winter on the other. After you have seen the blue-bird you will 

 see no more cold, no more snow, no more winter. He brings soft skies and the 

 ruddy brown of the fields. It is sure to be a bright March morning when you 

 first hear his note ; and it is as if the milder influences up above had found a 

 voice and let a word fall upon the ear, so tender is it and so prophetic a hope 

 tinged with a regret. 



Sc ribner's Mag azine, August, 1873. JOHN BURROUGHS. 



Owing to the destruction of forests, that part of Italy that was once adorned 

 with villas, parks, flower and fruit gardens, is now an unhealthy uninhabitable 

 region. The malarious gases were formerly absorbed by the leaves of the 

 numerous trees, but now they fill the air, and infect even the heart of the city. 



