114 BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING 



interfering branches and those which render the 

 tree unsymmetrical. 



On most old trees an important part of the prun- 

 ing consists in shortening in the heads. In order 

 to get nearer to the base of operations, and espe- 

 cially to bring the tree down within the range of 

 the spraying machine, fairly extensive heading-in is 

 often necessary. This part of the work in particular 

 should be accomplished with care and circumspec- 

 tion, and should be distributed over two or three 

 years if possible. 



At the first attack upon the problem the trunk 

 and main branches of the trees should be scraped 



FIG. 60 — TREE SCRAPER 



clean. This work is done with a dull knife or an 

 old hoe or with a special tree scraper, which may be 

 bought from any dealer for 25 or 30 cents. The 

 removal of the old broken bark, all of which should 

 be put on the bonfire and burned, gets rid of a large 

 storehouse of fungus spores. This old bark is the 

 favorite lodging place of all kinds of orchard pests. 

 When it is removed such insects and fungi are not 

 only killed in the process, but their hiding place is 

 removed for the future. 



If the trees are to be regrafted to new varieties 

 this work will accompany the original spring prun- 

 ing and scraping. The work should be done in early 

 spring, as already described on page 12. Many 



