REMOVING LARGE LIMBS. 



185 



Fiy. 19. Limb breakine down 

 from cut wrongly made. 



Fig. 19 may prove very serious to a tree. AVhenever it is 

 necessary to amputate a large or long branch, a cut should 

 be made from the under side of the 

 branch, at a distance of two or three feet ^j^- 

 from the trunk, and should extend half [{ 

 way through its diameter, as in Fig. 20, 

 line A ; another cut, B, should then be 

 made farther out, extending down into 

 the branch until it falls. The first cut 

 will prevent the limb from breaking 

 and splitting ofi" and the bark from tear- 

 ing down on the tree. The stump may then be removed 

 close to the trunk on the line C, cutting first from below, 

 and supporting the stump so that crushing or tearing of 

 the bark may again be avoided. This 

 method will prevent injury to the tree 

 and o:uard ao^ainst serious accidents which 

 sometimes occur when the limb is first 

 cut too close to the tree. In such cases 

 the outer end of the branch strikins: the 

 ground has sometimes caused the inner 

 Fig. 20. The proper method end to rebound and strike or throw down 

 of removing a large limb. workman. Whatcvcr uicthod is em- 

 ployed, the wound should be made perfectly smooth and even 

 with the outline of the trunk by cutthig or planing its sur- 

 face, which should then be immediately 

 covered with coal tar.* On fruit trees, 

 however, it is well never to remove a 

 large excrescence or shoulder (such as is 

 sometimes formed at the base of a limb) 

 if the wood is sound, but to cut the 

 limb at its junction with the shoulder. 



Large wounds are often made in the 

 tree trunk by the teeth of horses, the 

 breaking down of large limbs or in other 

 accidental ways. When such an acci- 

 dent occurs as is shown in Fio-. 21, it should receive imme 



Fig. 21. A trunk injured by 

 the breaking of a large limb. 



* If the roughened surface left by a saw-cut is smoothed, it lessens the danger 

 of decay ; and if the edges of the wound are trimmed down to the outline of the 

 tree, the wound is more readily covered by the occluding callus. 



