IMPROPER BRANCHING OF TREES AND ITS CURE 
M. G. KAINS 
A Most Potent Source of Breaking Down of Limbs and Tree Tragedies Gen- 
erally Is the Y-Crotch Which Can be Cured so Ought Never to be Endured 
NE of the most common causes of breakage of trees 
^ under ice storms or the weight of fruit is the so-called 
Y-crotch. Scarcely an orchard but has its quota of 
trees broken in this way, between the ages of five to 
ten years in the case of Peaches and Plums and ten to twenty 
years in that of Apples and Pears. And in ninety-nine per 
cent, of those cases the injury could have been prevented at the 
time of planting, or within the first four or five years there- 
after. So it is a matter for the careful orchardist and the grower 
of home fruits to attend to. One of three methods may be 
adopted. The first two are preventive, the third remedial. 
In the first method the development of a 
Y may be definitely prevented, even when 
a start has been made on a small tree, by 
cutting off one of the arms or branches in- 
volved. It is not a good plan to do this 
altogether however, when the tree is freshly 
planted, because a proportionately large 
wound must be made and the tree may 
suffer in consequence through drying of 
the tissues at that point. The better plan 
is to shorten the branch to, say, a foot or 
even six inches, allowing some good buds 
to remain upon the stub to keep life in this 
part for a year or two. Any branch that 
may develop from these buds should be 
prevented from growing to any extent, the 
idea being simply to keep the stub small but 
alive while the other branch of the Y is grow- 
FIGURE i 
The strain of concentrated 
sleet ice at one point proved 
too much for the naturally 
somewhat fragile Japanese 
Plum 
FIGURE 2 
The simple expedient 
of screws and (num- 
ber eleven) wire 
saved this peach tree 
from probable dis- 
aster 
FIGURE 3 
The sound, symmetric 
branching of this 
sturdy native apple 
tree should insure it 
against insidious 
breakage 
ing. When the time comes for the complete removal of the 
stub, this other favored branch should have grown to two or 
three times its original size and the stub should be relatively so 
small that its removal will leave only a small wound that will 
soon heal. This is undoubtedly the most satisfactory wav of 
handling the Y-crotch when the trees are newly planted or 
quite young. 
The second method applies when the removal of either branch 
would be too serious a 
loss, or would compel the 
development of other 
limbs either too high or 
too low. It consists in 
compelling one of the 
branches to take second 
place, to become a side 
branch on the other. 
This is accomplished by 
shortening it as already 
described and then allow- 
ing it to develop a branch 
or two, these to be greatly 
restricted and subsidiary 
to the main branch . 
While theactual Y-crotch 
is thus not actually pre- 
vented, the development 
of the cut-back limb will be so small in comparison with the 
other that its leverage will be scarcely appreciable and never 
likely to reach the breaking point. 
The third preventive method is chiefly needed where trees have 
grown several years before the Y-crotch is discovered. It re- 
sorts to a natural brace of living wood between the two arms of 
the Y, and in effect it depends upon natural graftage; for two 
branches are made to grow together. These branches should 
be chosen one from the inner side of each fork of the Y and 
preferably they should be from two to four years old and long 
and slender. They should also be at approximately the same 
height and their tips should extend out beyond the branches 
which it is intended they shall unite. A good height above the 
angle of the Y is from three to five feet. Each branch is twined 
carefully over the other so as to form several coils between the 
two main branches. After they are twined they must be 
fastened securely so they will not uncoil or move very much, 
though a little motion will help because it will rub the bark away 
and lay bare the cambium layer beneath, allowing the branches 
to unite the more quickly. All the leaves that develop on each 
of these branches are allowed to grow, because they help feed 
the branches, and small twigs may also be allowed to develop. 
But large ones and the tips of the twisted branches themselves 
should be shortened for they must be removed after the union 
IOI 
