34 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE. 
fact that so many leaves and so much young wood is 
destroyed, but I have yet to see any confirmation of 
this notion in practice. Pruning in February and March 
has its advantages, the most important of which is the 
greater leisure at that time. The fact that there is such 
a balance of opinion as to the relative advantages of 
early spring or late spring pruning, is proof that the 
advantages of either are mostly unimportant. From the 
facts that wounds heal sooner, that the work is pleasanter 
and that the brush handles easier, I have a preference for 
pruning just after the leaves appear. 
There is a conspicuous shoulder or enlargement at the 
7% base of most limbs. It is just at the 
outer border of this shoulder that the 
limb should be severed. Cut at about 
Ya ‘ty right angles to the limb which 
: you sever, and not to the trunk from 
which the limb springs. If cut at a 
right angle to the trunk the surface of 
the wound will be larger. This is 
illustrated in figure 2. The line a 6 
Fig. 2.—SHOULDER F 
OF A Lime, represents the proper direction of cut, 
the line ¢ d an improper direction. 
T have used many kinds of pruning tools, but for all 
purposes nothing is so good as a small saw in the hands 
of a nimble operator. A saw with a curved blade, with 
reflexed teeth for-a draw cut on the concave edge and 
ordinary teeth on the convex edge, is handiest. Long- 
handled pruning contrivances are unfit for continuous 
work, as the constant looking up is very tiresome. For 
small twigs in the top of the tree nothing is so good as 
