MULCHING AND PRUNING. 



73 



are low on the trunk, they are needed then to shelter the ten- 

 der stem from sun and rain. As the tree grows older these 

 first branches drop off, leaving the stem clean and graceful. 

 Dame Nature has pruned them. When a branch dies by-and-by 

 it decays and falls to the ground ; it is useless, so that too is 

 pruned away. Look at the young pine-trees, their branches are 

 low and sweei3 the ground, but the matured trunk rises eighty 

 feet in the air without a single branch. 



Never use a dull knife, saw, or shears in pruning a tree ; 

 the sharper the tool the better. 



It is always best to use shears on the smaller branches rather 

 than the knife, the latter being apt to slip and tear the bark. 

 "When the knife must be used, however, let the cut be upward 

 rather than downward, as this lessens the danger of damage to 

 the limb. Bear in mind that a rough haggled cut does not read- 

 ily heal, and very often never heals, thus injuring the tree per- 

 manently, and for this reason when large limbs have been sawed 

 off, the cut should be pared smooth with a knife, and then cov- 

 ered with thick shellac varnish, or grafting wax to exclude sun 

 and rain until healed, otherwise disease may be communicated to 

 the whole tree. 



All water-sprouts — that is, sprouts starting near the ground — 

 should be pinched off as soon as they appear. They are robbers 

 of the legitimate branches above them. Watch carefully for dead 

 limbs, and cut them away as quickly as possible, taking a por- 

 tion of the live Avood with them, to be sure that none of it 

 remains. " Once upon a time " it was thought that though a 

 dead limb was unsightly and useless, it did no actual harm, 

 but it has recently been proven otherwise. A dead limb not 

 only evaporates the sap that should go to the nutriment of the 

 tree, drawing it up by capillary attraction, like a sponge, but 

 the elements of decay it contains flows back into the tree and so 

 promotes disease ; therefore, never let a dead limb remain to 

 counteract all your good works. 



Some branches there will be, not dead, but diseased, so 

 that they either develop no leaves, or else sickly ones. Let 

 these be pruned away also for the same reason. 



