RENEWING OLD TREES 



Constant watchfulness should be maintained for adventitious 

 shoots starting out on stem or limb at points where branches are 

 not desired. Wherever they start out strongly, they should be 

 pinched, or entirely removed, according to the best judgment to be 



Weak tree from ill-spaced branches. 



formed in each case. Suckers, which, properly, according to 

 Downing, are "shoots sent up from the root or from parts of the 

 stem below the surface of the soil," should be removed whenever 

 discovered. 



RENEWING OLD TREES 



Improving and renewing trees by cutting back and grafting 

 has already been considered under the head of propagation. It 

 is often desirable to renew trees of a satisfactory variety, and this 

 is done simply by cutting back when the tree is dormant. Cutting 

 back was formerly done early in the winter, before the rise of the 

 sap begins, but more recently it has been seen that the exposure 

 of large cut surfaces for weeks or months before growth begins, 

 icsults in drying and shrinkage of the bark and checking of the 

 wood, both of which are avoided by amputation later in the dor- 

 mant period or during the early part of the growing season. In 

 cutting back, of course, those stumps should be left to support 

 new branches which will secure the best balance and symmetry 

 in the new head. When the new growth starts, there generally 

 appear many more shoots than are desirable, and selection of the 

 best-placed and most vigorous should be chosen, the others either 

 being rubbed off in the bud or pinched back when a few leaves 

 are put out. In cutting back trees, the exposed trunk and branch 

 stumps should be wrapped in old sacking, or carefully whitewashed 

 as protection from sunburn. 



In removing large limbs it is desirable that the cut should 

 be made in the right place so as to secure quick covering of the 

 scar with new growth. Cutting so as to leave a long stub results 

 in an unsightly piece of dead wood on the tree, and this, in decay- 

 ing, carries the decay deep into the center of the trunk or branch. 

 Cutting too close prevents covering with the new bark, and also 

 results in a hole in the branch. Cutting just to the right mark, 



