PRUNING 95 



tangled and interwoven in such a way that sun- 

 light never penetrates to the inside of the tree. 

 Pruning such specimens resolves itself into a 

 general thinning out process which often re- 

 quires the removal of many large and small 

 branches. There are two ways in which such a 

 tree can be made useful. The easiest method is 

 to select large branches and remove them, thus 

 allowing the remainder to get a proper expo- 

 sure. If the work is carefully done such meth- 

 ods are capable of producing good results, but 

 too often the pruner will make mistakes as to 

 the proper branches to remove and in the end 

 may have only a choice example of tree butch- 

 ery on his hands. 



A slower but more certain method is to go 

 over the tree very carefully and remove many 

 small branches, selecting them with care in re- 

 lation to those that are left. Branches that are 

 crossed in such a way that they rub on one 

 another should be separated. Other branches, 

 which if loaded would bear down on the branch 

 below, should be taken off. Over the whole 

 tree some thinning must be done in order to let 

 in the air and sun and enable the grower to get 

 his spray material in to the center of the tree 

 instead of just on the outside foliage. 



When large branches are removed certain 

 precautions must be observed in order to pre- 

 vent permanent damage to the tree. All 



