CHAPTER VIII 

 DRESSINGS FOR WOUNDS 



Many things have been recommended for protecting 

 wounds. Poultices of fresh cow manure mixed with clay 

 were lauded by fruit growers 50 years or more ago ; graft- 

 ing wax and paint during the past 50 years ; creosote and 

 tar by some fruit growers and foresters of the present 

 day. While the manure method is nowadays rarely used, 

 the paints and the grafting wax are doubtless most popu- 

 lar, but objections are raised to them because of their 

 expense and their faulty protection. 



FIG. 113 COLLECTION OF PRUNING KNIVES 



a, Combination of pruning, general and budding blades; b, stationary pruning 

 blade; c, pocket pruning and penknife; d, pruner for herbaceous and other small 

 growths; e t hawk-bill knife; /, popular style of pruning knife. 



In an old orchard the author found a slab of paint ( !) 

 made by the coats of several years' painting. It was a 

 quarter of an inch thick, had a little rotten wood cling- 

 ing to its under side. Beneath this "protection" the heart 

 wood of the 6 or 8-inch branch wound it had covered was 

 so decayed that quantities of it could be pulled out by 

 hand with almost no effort. Such cases should condemn 

 painting. 



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