CUTTING AND COVERING 



135 



For larger cuts than can be made with the pruning knife or 

 one-hand shears, there are pruning saws of different styles, of 

 which two styles are chiefly used. One has a frame made of the 

 best spring steel, constructed somewhat on the plan of a butcher's 

 saw, except that the saw blade is much narrower; and instead of 

 being stationary, it revolves so that the pruner is enabled to adjust 

 the blade to cut at any angle, as is often necessary to do when 

 cutting where limbs grow close together, and where it would be 

 impossible to use an ordinary saw of a wider blade. The blade 

 is only one-fourth to one-half inch wide, and therefore not liable 

 to get pinched in the cut. Strength is imparted by a tension 

 screw under the handle, which tightens the blade. The blade is 

 easily detached by slackening the tension screw, and lifting the 

 blade out of the slot in the clutches at each end. The blade can 

 be thus reversed and made to cut with a push or a pull, as may 

 be desired. 



Another popular saw is the curved pruning saw, with twelve 

 and fourteen-inch blades, which cuts with a pull. 



During recent years it has been possible to find quite full 

 assortments of pruning tools at the hardware and general mer- 

 chandise stores in all our fruit districts where these devices can 

 be compared and selection made according to individual preference, 

 for there can be no best tools for all men and all uses. 



CUTTING TO A BUD 



Whatever may be used to make the cut, it is important to 

 sever the twig or shoot at that distance from a wood bud which 

 gives that bud the best chance to grow well, and at the same 

 time facilitates the healing and complete obliteration of the scar. 

 Cutting too far from the bud leaves a stub which dies back, and is 

 likely to carry decay into the pith and thence down into the limb. 

 Cutting too close to the bud or carrying the slope down too far 

 behind it, does not give it enough live wood to carry it, and it 

 makes a weak growth. 



Cutting to inside buds with trees of spreading habit, and to 

 outside buds with upright growers, or to a side bud when lateral 

 extension is desired, should always be remembered as a means of 

 throwing new growth in the direction demanded by symmetry 

 and equal occupation of the space allotted to the tree. This is 

 one respect in which study of the habit of the tree suggests proper 

 practice. 



COVERING WOUNDS 



Whenever wood is cut with so great diameter that it will 

 not grow over in one season, the wound should be coated with 

 something to keep the wood from checking and decaying. It has 



