The Pruning of Trees 



in and closes over the solid wood at the centre. There is no 

 union between the wood and the healing bark, for the former 

 is practically dead. Being porous, it absorbs rain that follows 

 down its tubular wood fibres. Germs of wood-destroying fungi, 

 afloat in the air from rotting trees and twigs in the neighbourhood, 

 lodge in the exposed wound, germinate, and send their filamentous 

 hyphae down into the stub and on toward the heart of the tree. 

 Sugary, starchy cell contents moistened by the rain make the best 

 possible soil for such fungi. Better leave the tree unpruned than 

 to expose the inert heart wood by careless work. 



A covering of any waterproof substance protects the helpless 

 tree against invasion by its worst enemies. A cheap oil paint 

 like linseed oil and white lead fills the surface pores and lasts a 

 long time. It should be generously applied, so that no entrance 

 is left for disease. It likewise checks the bleeding, or flow of sap, 

 which dries the exposed stub and makes more room for rain to enter 

 with its accumulation of dirt and disease spores. Meanwhile, 

 the new bark rolls in, and when it meets over the wound the paint 

 has served its purpose. The covered wood has been kept sound. 

 It is often years before the process is complete, depending on the 

 size of the wound and the rate of the tree's growth. In many 

 cases the paint needs renewing. 



THAT VICIOUS LONG STUB 



Hired men set to pruning trees are almost sure to leave stubs. 

 They will argue that this is the best way. Go for your answer 

 to trees thus pruned in previous years. They are plenty in any 

 neighbourhood. The stub decays, its bark sloughs off at length, 

 and the bark at the base can never hope to heal the wound until 

 it swallows the stub entire, or the latter rots off at the base. In the 

 first case it is a delay of years. In the last, it means the invasion 

 of rot into the heart of the tree. A long stub, therefore, always 

 threatens the health of the tree, is a blot upon its beauty, and a 

 monument to the laziness and ignorance or dishonesty of the 

 man who pruned by this pernicious method. 



TEN PRINCIPLES OF PRUNING 



I. Pruning the roots lessens the food supply, and so retards 

 top growth. 



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