12 THE APPLE-TREE 



and small trunks the bark is tight and close, not splitting 

 into seams or furrows with the expansion of the cylinder 

 but stretching and throwing off detached flakes and chips. 

 Under the chips various insects hide or make some of 

 their transformations. There the codlin-moth pupates. 

 The old remains of scale insects may be found on the ex- 

 terior. In the furrows about the dormant buds the eggs 

 of plant-lice pass the winter. 



To destroy these breeding and hiding places, many 

 careful apple-growers scrape away the loose bark, being 

 careful not to expose the quick living tissue ; and on the 

 younger wood the eggs of aphis and other pests, as well 

 as cocoons and nymphs, are destroyed by vigorous winter 

 spraying. The regular spraying of apple-trees, in the 

 different seasons, more or less sterilizes the bark. Many 

 forms of canker, due to fungi and bacteria, invade the 

 bark, making sunken areas and scars, often so serious 

 as to destroy the tree. All these features are discoverable 

 in the apple-tree. 



The trunk of the apple-tree is short and stout, usually 

 not perfectly cylindrical and not prominently buttressed 

 at the base. In old trees it is usually ribbed or ridged, 

 sometimes tortuous with spiral-like grooves, often show- 

 ing the bulge where the graft was set. The wood is fine- 

 grained and of good color, and lends itself well to certain 

 kinds of cabinet work and to the turning-lathe for house- 

 hold objects ; it should be better known. 



If left to itself, the tree branches near the ground, 

 making many strong secondary scafifold trunks ; but the 

 plant does not habitually have more than one bole, even 

 though it may branch from the very base ; it is a real tree, 

 even though small, and not a huge shrub. In the natural 



