238 Practical Orcharding On Rough Lands, 



growth. They matured their buds, burst forth 

 into leaf, and those leaves performed their 

 functions just as truly as do the ones which 

 wave so proudly now from its lofty boughs. 

 But they are gone, pruned away. They out- 

 lived their usefulness and were sacrificed. The 

 tool that was used was shade. The oversha- 

 dowing growth of the more thrifty branches 

 caused them to die and drop to the ground as 

 those we saw upon the snow-covered surface of 

 the forest. Should we study the life of such a 

 branch we might learn a lesson. We notice a 

 certain limb which for some reason has ceased 

 to grow. Those around it push on even more 

 rapidly; soon it has not only ceased to grow, 

 but it is no longer clothed with leaves and it 

 dies shaded to death. In a few months or 

 years it has dropped to the ground and all 

 there remains to mark its former place is a 

 stub. The great body of the tree has not 

 ceased its growth, but continues to build layer 

 upon layer of woody fibre about its trunk. As 

 these layers are built over the surface they find 

 an obstruction — a stub, the remains of a limb 

 which has been pruned away. 



Now if this limb was small the stub is short, 

 and these layers will soon cover it over and it 

 will be as one of those heart knots which we 



