Trimming the Young Tree. 247 



to cut off the ends of all roots of the size of a lead 

 pencil or larger, for a clean, smooth wound is sup- 

 posed to heal quicker than a ragged one. These cuts 

 are made from within outwards, so that the wound is 

 more or less slanting across the roots, and so that it 

 rests firmly upon the ground when the tree is set. 

 When the tree is planted, all the roots should be 

 straightened out to nearly or quite their normal posi- 

 tion. If it is found that one or two roots run off to 

 an inordinate length, they may be cut back to corre- 

 spond somewhat with the main root system. 



Perhaps half the entire root system of the young 

 tree is left in the ground when it is dug. It is there- 

 fore evident that the top should be cut back to a cor- 

 responding amount. In fact, the top should be more 

 severely shortened -in than the root, because the root, 

 in addition to being reduced, is also dislodged from 

 the soil, with which it must establish a new union 

 before it can resume the normal activities. Trees 

 which are allowed to carry too much top when 

 planted may fail to grow outright ; or if they start, 

 they are very likely to be overtaken by the droughts 

 of summer. Even if they live, the growth is gen- 

 erally small and uncertain, and the tree may fall a 

 prey to borers or a victim to high winds. On the 

 other hand, trees may be trimmed too severely when 

 set. Except possibly in the case of peaches, it is 

 probably unwise to trim the trees to a mere pole ; 

 and with peaches, it may be better to leave spurs 

 with at least one bud than to trim to a whip. There 

 should be a number of strong, bright buds left upon 



