THE GARDEN PRIMER 



reducing this struggle. For, of course, when its best 

 efforts are constantly strained to the utmost in just 

 keeping alive, it cannot produce flowers nor fruits in 

 abundance, nor of a very high quality. When there are 

 too many branches, or many that are old and weak, 

 none can be as strong and leafy as they should, for all 

 are insufficiently nourished; it is a desperate struggle 

 for life between them constantly. 



A little pruning every year is the ideal. The de- 

 struction of an ambitious shoot as soon as it starts — the 

 destruction of it as a bud — is far easier on the tree, and 

 the gardener too, than the laborious task of sawing 

 through a good sized limb after it has been allowed 

 several years in which to grow. 



But when large limbs must be cut away, the loss 

 to the tree is far less and the operation is less likely to 

 be disastrous if the work is properly done. The right 

 way is simple enough, but everywhere wrong ways 

 are in evidence, and for one person who understands 

 such pruning it seems there must be a score who 

 do not. 



All large limbs should be cut as close to the main 

 trunk from which they rise as it is possible to lay a saw, 

 and the cut which severs them must always be parallel 

 with the main trunk and not at right angles to the branch 

 which is being taken away. No way hut this is right, 

 no matter who practices it! 



In the case of large and heavy limbs — which ought 

 never to be cut down unless there is an absolutely 

 imperative reason — it is best to remove the limb first 



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