The Pruning of Trees 



credulity of the public. His glibness passes for scientific knowledge 

 with people who are themselves ignorant of the life and the needs 

 of their trees. Too often they succumb to his arguments and let 

 him scrape and hack and doctor the trees as he sees fit. It is 

 probably an indignant neighbour who expatiates on the havoc 

 wrought. The dazed owner, with flattened purse and a sense 

 of failure and disillusion, bewails what cannot be undone. The 

 tree pruner is gone, so the vengeance that should cut short his 

 profitable career follows him afar off. 



This is plain justice to the family and to the community and 

 to the trees: — If a tree is worth pruning at all it is worth the 

 owner's while to inform himself as to the best method and then 

 stand by and see that his directions are carried out, unless there 

 is some man of well-known intelligence who can be trusted to do 

 it properly. We shall come to recognise one day that the trees 

 of a community are common property in the best sense, and no 

 man has a right to prune them or cut them down unless he acts 

 as a duly appointed representative of all the people. 



HOW TO CUT OFF A LIMB 



"The best pruning tool is the thumb and finger." So it is, 

 even for trees in their infantile stages. Pinching back tender shoots 

 forms the tree's head to the owner's liking, and yearly attention 

 keeps it under control. This is the ideal way. In practice, 

 however, limbs must be cut off — sometimes very large ones. 

 Pruning knives and shears and the long-armed, strong-jawed 

 pruners will easily cut limbs to an inch or a little more in thickness. 

 After this, a good saw is the right tool. Axes and hatchets are 

 unfit for use in pruning, as they leave the cut surface uneven and 

 tear the bark. 



The limb should be sawed off smooth and clean on a level 

 with the surrounding bark. There will be some projection, inevit- 

 ably, for the limb has a flaring base. But no projecting stub 

 of the branch itself should be permitted to remain. Better far a 

 larger wound made by sawing well down in the enlarged basal part. 

 If any tearing of the bark has occurred, unevennesses should be 

 trimmed with a sharp knife. 



The healing of the wound must be a slow process, for the 

 inner bark has to 'l^nn a layer of new tissue that gradually rolls 



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