PRUNING 85 



a tree to produce a useful branch at a point 

 where one is lacking. Or we can cause a gen- 

 eral increase of growth over the entire tree. 



In winter, a tree's surplus food supply is 

 stored chiefly in the roots, the trunk and the 

 main branches. This supply is intended to 

 start the tree on its next season's growth 

 and in a normal case it will consist of enough 

 reserve food to give the tree a reasonable start 

 on its leaf and wood production. There is, in 

 other words, enough reserve food to supply 

 every twig and branch of the tree for the first 

 few weeks of the growing season. You can note 

 this in the case of willow trees more readily 

 than you can with apples. Most any one has 

 seen willows that were cut down in winter but 

 promptly issued forth a crop of green leaves 

 as soon as warm weather returned. Those 

 leaves were the product of the tree's reserve 

 food supply — in that case stored in the trunk. 

 Now, if we remove a portion of the twigs and 

 branches of a tree we do not remove propor- 

 tionately as much food as we do wood, for the 

 food supply is, wisely, stored farther down in 

 the tree. Consequently the tree finds itself 

 with a surplus supply of reserve food and with 

 it there is an attempt to replace the wood area 

 that has been removed. This new growth may 

 consist of a few main branches, in the case of 

 very young trees, or it may consist of a diffused 



