56 



POPULAR FRUIT GROWING. 



wax is an especially good material to use, but is too expensive 

 for ordinary use where many limbs are to be painted. 



Tools. — Good tools kept in good condition are essential for 



good pruning work. 

 The common ax and 

 bucksaw do not come 

 under this head. A 

 good saw, ligbt and 

 heavy shears, tree 

 pruner for heading in 

 limbs, ladder and 

 heavy knife are all 

 the tools actually need- 

 -Spiit ed in the work. The 



cutting, a. 



from removal of limb cut from above. 

 b.— Proper method of removing limb, common two-edged prun- 

 ing saw is the one most 

 often used. The swivel saw is much handier, however. The 

 heavy long-handled shears often take the place of the saw, but 

 unless the pruner is careful in handling them stubs will be left 

 on the tree. 



Forming the Apple Tree. 

 — Figure 13 shows the dif- 

 ferent steps in formative 

 pruning, starting, as is done 

 in some parts of the coun- 

 try, with the one-year-old 

 tree. The numeral 1 repre- 

 sents a tree set; la shows 

 it cut back to 18 to 24 inch- 

 es from the ground and the 

 side branches cut off. This 

 will force out a number of 

 side buds into strong 

 branches. If all of these 

 are allowed to remain we 

 have a tree similar to 2 the 

 second year. These should 

 be thinned to three or four, 



as <?brwn in >« Tbprf^ ^'^- ^^ —Handy method of heating 

 as snown in ,.a. mere grafting wax to paint wounds. 



