Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-07-02
Pruning EYergreenS.

2 dozen SNtISI66uS, TWO OF 4 KIM. SOIuS
you wish to grow in form of pinnacles
and you select the Norway spruce, be-
cause it is a strong growing variety, and
let the leader run up as it chooses, only
heading in the side limbs to thicken it up
and do away with its shaggy appearance.
If YOU wanted an oblate dwarf, say at d
scale of six feet wide to twelve inches
high in the center, you would take the
weak growing balsam at a foot high, cut
out its leader, and, year after year, do like
wise. Let it rise only about two inches
in the year and not head in the side limbs,
and you would have what you wished.
So, if you wanted an arbor-vit@ dwarfed,
with round head at six feet high, or an
Austrian or other pine hemispherical at
eight feet, you would act accordingly by
cutting out the top leader at the height
you want, and the center leader to the
side limbs, ETC., according to judgment.
There is continued effort of the ever
green's to make height and, if top leader
of a balsam or Norway, for example, is
broken off this year, one of the side top
limbs will rise up next year and take the
lead. In short, whatever you fancy can
be accomplished by taking the tree in
early time; for, whenever you shorten a
leader or side limb, the sap is Immediately
diverted into buds that grow and multi
ply limbs and foliage. You can make
your tree hemisphere, semi-Oyoid, semi
Oblate spheroid, parabOloid, high or low
cone, nonOid, semi-Oblate cOnOid or pin
nacle.
The balsam can be made a pinnacle,
but the danger is that its lower limbs will
thin out their foliage and die, and then
the tree, as an ornament, is ended.
All ornamental pruning of an evergreen
top is done by a judiciOus shOrtening-in
process, and should always, if possible,
be done in early spring before the sap has
started, but should not be commenced on
an evergreen the year it is transplanted,
nor until it is thoroughly established. In
heading in limb, always cut just above
say one-third of an inch above-a bud,
SO that the bud may develop into a new
limb (this rule does not apply to the pines,
however,.
Another method to insure regularity:
Measure out from the bottom of the tree
equal distances and drive peg. Make
circle through the pegs-the tree as
center. From the pegs extend lines to
the top of the tree and head in, in circle,
to these lines as a guide, either with the
pruning shears or a long, sharp butchers
knife, with which you can cut off by the
eye limb at every stroke. The arbor
vitae can have rounded head, PARADE
loid, and being furnished with numerous
incipient buds will thicken up exceeding
ly by constant spring pruning. AS l
have remarked, early spring, before the
sap flows, is the best time; and it is said
to be fatal to red cedar hedge to prune
in midsummer.
The red cedar is capable of being made
a very beautiful ornament. Being at an
amateur neighbours Of mine several years
ago, | observed a red cedar about four
feet high, a struggling, one-sided growth
with three lobes Of foliage two feet from
the ground, with as large vacancies be-
tween-a very ungainly but thrifty-look-
ing tree. | remarked to my friend as we
passed it that that tree was capable of
being made beauty. GLOW ?" said
he "By heading in" said |. Glow is
that?" I told him to measure at the low
er limbs an equal distance from the tree
and around, and cut off all the leading
limbs with his knife at that distance, and
do the same all the way, tapering to the
top, making the outlines OF the tree cone
shaped, and keep doing so whenever he
saw a limb shoot over the line. He of
fered me a knife and [ showed him. He
followed instructions whenever he passed
| the tree and saw limb shooting out over
the mark. In three years afterward the
tree had thickened up into perfect cone.
Even the open places had foliage so close
that a sparrow could not get in its
branches, and my friend was offered 800
for the tree if he would move it over to a
neighbor's grounds.
The pines are more difficult to treat. l
lrnur hnUvpupr whore Jxh ito T1ir1a
was growing so fast as to require its
removal or curtailment, where the owner
cut off the leader at nine feet from the
ground, where the tree was two and one
half inches in diameter, and each leading
limb at the junction of its branches, leav-
ing only the side branches of the limbs,
and in one year afterward it was comely-
looking tree, an ornament, but so con-
tracted as to make no further trouble. l
have no doubt that any Of the other pines
can be treated in like manner with
success.
1t 10 to be remarked that of all the dis
taff-headed growing evergreens the prun-
ing must be above the bud, for, if below,
no shoot will start where there is no bud,
rs is the case in deciduous trees, but
wherever there is bud there will be a
shoot, and the more the sap is checked by
heading back other portions of the tree
the longer and stronger the shoot will
grow.
By the term leader | mean the main
upright shoot, stem or body of tree, not
the side shoots or branches; and when
applied to the branch of body or stem
of a tree the leading or main branch, not
side shoots from a branch.
From what has been above written, |
think it must appear patent that " cutting
back" main leader will cripple or
dwarf tap root and strengthen the side
roots, and heading in" branch leader
will proportiOnately multiply and
strengthen the side roots, so that the tree,
whether fruit or ornamental. by this
dwarfng process, becomes invigorated,
and trees on the decline, by thorough and
iudicious cutting back, " may be forced
by their tenacity of life TO throw out new
side roots and thus become healthy
John T. BlO5s, IN Western Rural
After-Dinner Recreation on Vermont
Farm.