220 PRUNING. 



ing-knife, and the part cut off sharped and stuck 

 firmly into the ground, close beside the stool from 

 which it was cut. This marks the place where the 

 young shoots are when looked over about midsummer, 

 in order to clear them of grass and other herbage that 

 would otherwise choke them. Next season, when 

 they are again looked over about the same time of the 

 year, the shoots are examined, and the strongest one 

 selected for the future tree. In making the cut, in 

 this as in all other cases, it should be made consider- 

 ably slanting, or, speaking mathematically, at an angle 

 of about 45°. 



In reducing the top weight of trees newly trans- 

 planted from one place to another, the practice is 

 to consider, first, how much and what part to cut off. 

 As is well known, when a large tree is lifted its roots 

 are always less or more injured or diminished; and 

 one of the objects in pruning is to lessen the demand 

 for sap in the upper part of the tree, that it may be 

 expended on the lower part. The benefits thus de- 

 rived, however, though considerable, are not so great 

 as those resulting from reducing the top weight of the 

 tree in order to lessen the strain upon the roots. It 

 is not always the main stem that requires reducing, 

 but sometimes the larger branches as weU. It should 

 always be observed, however, that the tree to be thus 

 operated upon should be in vigorous growth and well 

 developed in all its parts. 



Many trees, from various circumstances, lose their 

 top-shoot — sometimes from the loss of the terminal 

 bud, and sometimes from damage to the young and 

 tender shoot itself by gales or even birds perching 

 upon it. It is of small moment whatever the pro- 

 ducing cause is ; but the question remains how best 



