8 



THE FRUIT-TREE AKD SHRUB PRUXER. 



In pruning Peach and Nectarine and other wall trees 

 be careful to have a fine, thin, keen-edged pruning knife. 

 I mention this because I find young hands who have not 

 been well trained frequently use knives too large, too 

 much of a hook shape, and not possessing a thin blade, nor 

 sufficiently keen-edged to make good clean work in this 

 kind of pruning. The consequence is, that the cuts being 

 often left with a fractured edge, they frequently split, 

 and the result of all this has a fatal effect upon the tree. 



In cutting a tree back like Fig. 7 saw the thick 

 branches off carefully with a fine-toothed pruning saw, 



Fig. 9. 



close to the base of a young piece of wood (see Fig. 8, 

 letter a. Then smooth over the saw-cut with the 

 pruning knife, and if the limb is larger than one inch 

 in diameter paint the cut over with some grafting- wax 

 made of pitch, mutton fat, and bees'-wax — 1 lb. of the 

 pitch, 2 ozs. of the fat, and 2 ozs. of the wax melted 

 together in a pipkin over a slow fire. Put this on 

 when it is just warm enough to spread with a brush ; 

 this will keep any water from getting into the heart of 

 the branch, and will prevent decay. 



Now, without going into modern and comparatively 

 unknown technicalities, which are of little or no use to a 

 learner, I beg to observe that when a Peach-tree, or in- 



