222 PRUNING. 



of the pruning-knife, or, if higher up, the pruning 

 chisel and mallet must be used. In making the cut, 

 whatever the instrument is, the wound should be 

 neatly smoothed over and painted with any colour of 

 paint as near the colour of the bark of the tree as 

 possible. Attention to contending top leaders, so as to 

 direct the top-growth of the tree not only in hardwoods 

 but conifers as well, is a branch of pruning of the 

 very highest importance, and should always be kept 

 well in hand. In making choice of the leader, its 

 position on the tree, as influenced by the prevailing 

 winds, should be well considered, and also the pro- 

 portional growth of girth and height, so that if the 

 stem is small in girth compared with its height, in- 

 stead of cutting off the contending shoot quite close 

 to the stem, only half its length may be cut at first, 

 and the other part close to the stem at a future 

 period. 



Certain branches are so grown that an acute angle 

 is formed between the branch and the stem, and as 

 they develop, the bark of the two surfaces is so com- 

 pressed between them that they form an unsafe and 

 insecure junction — so much so, indeed, that when the 

 tree advances in size, and the branches become limbs, 

 they split off by wind or snows, and even by their 

 own natural weight of foliage in a wet or dewy day. 

 Such branches should either be reduced in size, cut off 

 close to the stem at once, or by degrees, as the health 

 and development of the tree suggest. 



Dead and decaying branches are to be found upon 

 all properly grown forest-trees at one stage or other 

 of their growth, from the simple circumstance that, as 

 the upper branches grow and spread, they shade the 

 lower ones from light and air till they die. Now the 



