42 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE. 
three or four years the free ends may be cut off. Inafew 
years they will be united into a perfectly solid bar across 
the crotch (figure 5). Twigs from the size of a lead pencil 
to the size of one’s finger unite most readily. All the 
larger crotches of an apple tree may be braced in this 
manner, and injury from splitting will be mostly avoided. 
Fig. 5.—LIvING BRACE IN A CROTCH. 
not wait for the growing together of smalllimbs. In such 
cases iron bolts must be used. Much damage to trees 
can be averted if bolts are used as soon as a weakness is 
discovered. Half-inch rods of considerable length may 
also be run through the branches at some distance above 
their junction. When crotches have been split entirely. 
