PARK AND CEMETERY. 
274 
should not economize in this direction 
where a valuable fruit crop is at stake. 
Any finely powdered sulphur (flowers, 
flour, or '‘Commercial ground” sulphur) 
may be used in the preparation of the 
mixture. 
In order to secure the best action 
from the lime, the mixture should be 
prepared in rather large quantities, at 
least enough for 200 gallons of spray, 
using 32 pounds of lime and 32 pounds 
of sulphur. The lime should be placed 
in a barrel and enough water (about 6 
gallons) poured on to almost cover it. 
As soon as the lime begins to slake the 
sulphur should be added, after first run- 
ning it through a sieve to break up the 
lumps, if any are present. The mixture 
should be constantly stirred and more 
water (3 or 4 gallons) added as needed 
to form at first a thick paste and then 
gradually a thin paste. The lime will 
supply enough heat to boil the mixture 
several minutes. As soon as it is well 
slaked water should be added to cool 
the mixture and prevent further cooking. 
It is then ready to be strained into the 
spray tank, diluted and applied. 
The stage at which cold water should 
be poured on to stop the cooking varies 
with different limes. Some limes are 
so sluggish in slaking that it is difficult 
to obtain enough heat from them to 
cook the mixture at all, while other 
limes become intensely hot on slaking, 
and care must be taken not to allow the 
boiling to proceed too far. If the mix- 
ture is allowed to remain hot for IS or 
20 minutes after the slaking is com- 
pleted, the sulphur gradually goes into 
solution, combining with the lime to 
form sulphides, which are injurious to 
some foliage. It is therefore very im- 
portant, especially with hot lime, to cool 
the mixture quickly by adding a few 
buckets of water as soon as the lumps 
of lime have slaked down. The intense 
heat, violent boiling, and constant stir- 
ring result in a uniform mixture of 
finely divided sulphur and lime, with 
only a very small percentage of the sul- 
phur in solution. It should be strained to 
take out the coarse particles of lime, but 
the sulphur should be carefully worked 
through the strainer. 
This solution can be had already made 
for use and of uniform strength, doing 
away with the expense of a boiling 
outfit and a most disagreeable job in 
making. 
While the pure oil treatment is very 
highly recommended by some having- 
wide experience in the treatment of San 
Jose scale, many prefer the lime and sul- 
phur solution, as there is not so much dan- 
ger of injuring the tree as with pure kero- 
sene. However, with the right care, 
kerosene can be and is used. 
Arsenate of lead is recommended gen- 
erally in preference to Paris green by 
nearly all the entomologists as an in- 
secticide. The principal advantages of 
arsenate of lead over Paris green is that 
the arsenate of lead can be used much 
stronger than the Paris green with prac- 
tically no danger of burning the foliage 
to which it is applied. Another advan- 
tage of the arsenate of lead over Paris 
green is its adhesiveness after being 
sprayed, as it will stick to the foliage to 
which it is applied throughout the sea- 
son. Its action is slower than that of 
Paris green, but the fact that it does not 
readily burn the foliage is an advantage 
when spraying various kinds of delicate 
trees with one mixture. It is used at 
the rate of from one to five pounds to 
fifty gallons of water or Bordeaux — or 
the lime-sulphur sprays. 
The copper sulphate solution is made 
up of copper sulphate, 4 pounds; water, 
50 gallons. Dissolve 50 pounds of cop- 
per sulphate in 50 gallons of water as 
for Bordeaux. For use, pour 4 gallons 
of above solution in a 50-gallon barrel 
and fill up with water. 
PRUNING AND CARE OF TREE WOUNDS 
By W. A. Murrill, in Cornell University Bulletin. 
The natural forms of shade trees should 
be preserved as far as possible ; but since 
trees are rarely adapted to the require- 
ments of a city street, more or less prun- 
ing usually becomes a necessity. Pruning 
should, however, be indulged in as little as 
possible, and no branch should be removed 
from a tree without a good reason. The 
cutting of trees into various artificial shapes 
cannot be justified on any reasonable ground 
whatsoever. 
If a street tree has been properly trained 
in the nursery, very little pruning is needed, 
and this only for the first few years after 
planting, during which time the original 
form is preserved by trimming the fast 
growing limbs, removing the crooked ones, 
and shortening those that droop as they be- 
come larger and heavier. When one must 
use an untrained tree, steps should be taken 
at once to elevate the trunk and encourage 
the growth of a straight central stem with 
subordinate branches. The lower limbs of 
a tree should never interfere with the 
street lights or with passing vehicles. In 
Paris, the height of the trunk is required 
to be fifteen feet. The top of a tree should 
not be allowed to become so dense as to 
exclude the sun from the soil beneath or 
from buildings nearby. The foliage is 
also more uniform and better developed 
when light and air are admitted to the in- 
terior of a tree, and this increase in leaf 
surface adds materially to its healthful 
effect. 
It often happens that trees have been 
neglected until very large. To bring them 
into shape requires considerable care, but 
it should be undertaken if they interfere 
with the proper use of the street. Trees 
that have been trained and are simply over- 
grown can be easily brought back within 
bounds by thinning out or shortening the 
overgrown branches. Old and failing trees 
may often be stimulated to new growth by 
judicious pruning. When branches are in- 
jured by accident or broken by wind or 
snow, pruning becomes a necessity. It is 
also wise to remove all dead branches as 
soon as they are discovered. 
The best time for general pruning in 
New York State is in the spring, before 
growth begins, or from the middle of Feb- 
ruary to the middle of April. Sap-running 
trees are best pruned from the middle of 
May to the middle of June. In case fall 
pruning is preferred, trees that run sap 
should be finished before the middle of 
October and other trees after this time. 
Injured or dead limbs should be removed 
when observed. The latter are best seen 
before the leaves fall. Dead branches are 
unsightly and dangerous to passers-by and 
to children playing beneath them, while 
they also endanger the life of the tree by 
carrying decay into its trunk. A hollow 
trunk often has its beginning in a neg- 
lected dead branch. Dead branches also 
absorb sap and afford breeding places for 
injurious insects and fungi. 
Pruning is the removal of some branches 
and the shortening of others. The smaller 
the branches when cut, the better it is for 
the tree. While in the nursery, branches 
are best removed in the bud stage and best 
shortened by having their tips pinched off. 
If disbudding and pinching is carefully at- 
tended to, the work of pruning in after 
years is greatly lessened, while the form 
and vitality of the tree are greatly improved. 
When trees' are planted from the nursery 
with a full height of stem and with the 
top already formed, it is necessary only to 
preserve this form by encouraging the 
leader and checking the growth of am- 
bitious side branches by cutting their tips. 
When trees with low stems and unformed 
tops are planted, the stem should be grad- 
ually elevated by cutting back the lower 
branches to one-half or two-thirds their 
length each year for two or three years 
and then removing them entirely. In case 
several spring from the same point on the 
