ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 
29 7 
Written 
for the “ Arbor 
Day 
Manual 
PRUNING TREES. 
S trees grow thick]}'- together in the forest, the lower limbs die and drop off. 
ri while they are small; but in case of isolated trees, the conditions are so 
different, that unless pruned, they are often ill shaped and unsightly. 
Many people erroneously imagine that as a tree grows, the limbs will be raised 
higher, whereas, from increased weight, they droop and become really lower. 
The common practice is to neglect pruning shade trees till the view is 
obstructed by large low limbs which are then heroically sawed off, leaving large 
knots and scars which must ever remain to offend the eye. These useless 
branches were grown at the expense of the main trunk ; such trees can never 
present the fine and majestic appearance of those which have a nearly uniform 
diameter from the ground to the lowest limbs. 
In imitation of nature’s process in the forest, all limbs and sprouts should be 
removed as soon as possible up to a desired point; this can usually be done 
with an ordinary knife, or even the hand. In considering the removal of as 
sprout, the question should be : Will a branch be desirable at that point? If 
not, let it not remain to rob desirable parts. The height at which branching 
should be allowed to commence must be decided by individual taste which will 
also indicate the lopping off, at other points, of those branches which are ill- 
formed, and not in harmony with the general appearance. Dead and decaying 
limbs should be promptly removed. H. R. Sanford, A. M. 
THE BLUE-BIRD. 
HEN Nature made the blue-bird she wished to propitiate both the sky and 
vv the earth, so she gave him the color of the one on his back and the hue of 
the other on his breast, and ordained that his appearance in spring should 
denote that the strife and war between these two elements was at an end. He 
is the peace-harbinger; in him the celestial and the terrestrial strike hands and 
are fast friends. He means the furrow and he means the warmth ; he means all 
the soft, waving influences of the spring on the one hand, and the retreating 
footsteps of winter on the other. After you have seen the blue-bird you will 
see no more cold, no more snow, no more winter. He brings soft skies and the 
ruddy brown of the fields. It is sure to be a bright March morning when youi 
first hear his note ; and it is as if the milder influences up above had found a 
voice and let a word fall upon the ear, so tender is it and so prophetic a hope 
tinged with a regret. 
Scribner's Magazine. August, 1873. John BURROUGHS.. 
Owing to the destruction of forests, that part of Italy that was once adorned?, 
with villas, parks, flower and fruit gardens, is now an unhealthy uninhabitable- 
region. The malarious gases were formerly absorbed by the leaves of the 
numerous trees, but now they fill the air, and infect even the heart of the city- 
