146 



PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF PRUNING 



to fit into every chink and thus exclude air and water. 

 In a few years the cions will grow together and in time 

 lose their identity in a smooth trunk. 



Bridge grafting is a makeshift method not to be com- 

 pared with proper protection of trunks by keeping ani- 

 mals out of the orchard, by avoiding accumulation of 

 grass, straw, etc., in which mice might form nests, and 

 by using trunk protectors splints, tarred or building 



paper, but preferably half- 

 inch galvanized hardware 

 cloth around the trunks 

 until the trees have de- 

 veloped rough bark. Such 

 methods will prevent the 

 necessity of bridge grafting 

 except in cases of unusual 

 accident. 



When the girdles are 

 narrow say only one to 

 three inches no bridging 

 rnay be necessary. In such 

 cases, however, it is well to 

 err on the safe side by 

 105 WELL-BRANCHED LOW- coverins" the wound with 



HEADED PEACH wuum 



grafting clay (half clay and 

 fresh cow manure) and 

 bandaging this in with cotton cloth, or by using grafting 

 wax. Often such wounds will heal over in a single season. 

 129. Pruning tools of many styles are upon the market, 

 but many of them are of small utility and some worse 

 than useless, positively harmful. Of course the tool 

 equipment will vary with the man and with the type of 

 work to be done. In general, however, the kit will con- 

 sist of a knife, a pair of hand shears and two or three 

 different types and sizes of saws. If there is to be much head- 

 ing back of side branches out of hand reach a pole primer 

 (Figs. 106 to 108) may be added, and for removing dead 



FIG. 



No danger of splitting from even 

 heavy load 



