236 Practical Orcharding On Rough Lands. 



operator. A good, strong keyhole saw, or some- 

 thing on that style has proven very satisfactory 

 where it can be conveniently used. 



Where to Cut. — ^The question of where to 

 cut when removing limbs from our trees is 

 one that has not had the careful thought given 

 it, that its importance deserves and even de- 

 mands. We might well learn a few lessons 

 from nature by the way in which she builds 

 the great trunks of the trees of the forests. 

 Few of us probably ever think when passing 

 through the woods and noticing the knot holes 

 in the trees how they came about. Many boys 

 suppose them to have been made by the squir- 

 rels which seem to have such happy and com- 

 fortable homes "In the very heart of the oak," 

 the door of which was the knot hole. Those 

 who have been engaged in the clearing of our 

 forests, and in the manufacture of lumber, 

 recognize where there are knot holes in trees 

 there is likely to be dead, or even rotten wood, 

 and the tree or log may have lost much of its 

 value. It is because of this decay that takes 

 place — often to such an extent that the trunk 

 becomes hollow — that the squirrel is enabled 

 to enter the formerly sound bodies of our great 

 trees. Knot holes are the result of self -pruning, 

 or as we say, Nature's pruning. In order to 



