Trimming the Young Tree. 247 
to cut off the ends of all roots of the size of a lead 
pencil or larger, for a clean, smooth wound is sup- 
posed to heal quicker than a ragged one. These euts 
are made from within outwards, so that the wound is 
more or less slanting across the roots, and so that it 
rests firmly upon the ground when the tree is set. 
When the tree is planted, all the roots should be 
straightened out to nearly or quite their normal posi- 
tion. If it is found that one or two roots run off to 
an inordinate length, they may be eut back to corre- 
spond somewhat with the main root system. 
Perhaps half the entire root system of the young 
tree is left in the ground when it is dug. It is there- 
fore evident that the top should be eut back to a cor- 
responding amount. In fact, the top should he more 
severely shortened-in than the root, because the root, 
in addition to being reduced, is also dislodged from 
the soil, with which it must establish a new union 
before it can resume the normal activities. Trees 
which are allowed to carry too much top when 
planted may fail to grow outright; or if they start, 
they are very likely to be overtaken by the droughts 
of summer. Even if they live, the growth is gen- 
erally small and uncertain, and the tree may fall a 
prey to borers or a victim to high winds. On the 
other hand, trees may be trimmed too severely when 
set. Except possibly in the case of peaches, it is 
probably unwise to trim the trees to a mere pole; 
and with peaches, it may be better to leave spurs 
with at least one bud than to trim to a whip. There 
should be a number of strong, bright buds left upon 
