Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1874-06-19
limb this rule does not apply to the pines,

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 a
| circle through the pegs-the tree as a
center. From the pegs extend lines to
! the top of the tree and head in, in circle,
to these lines as guide, either with the
pruning shears or 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 /
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 red cedar about four
| feet high, 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. l remarked to my friend as we
| passed it that that tree was capable of
| being made beauty. "How so?' said
| he. "By heading in,' said /. How is
that?" 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 limb shoot over the line. He of
fered me knife and showed him. He
followed instructions whenever he passed
the tree and saw a 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 q
neighbours grounds.
The pines are more difficult to treat. I
| know case, however, where white pine
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
halt inches in diameter, and each leading
limb at the junction of its branches, ieav-
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. I
have no doubt that any of the other pines
can be treated in like manner with
success.
1t ig to be remarked that of all the dis
taffheaded growing evergreens the prun-
ing must be above the bud, for, if below,
no shoot will start where there is no bud,
as 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 1 mean the main
upright shoot, stem or body of tree, not
the side shoots or branches; and when
applied to the branch of a body or stem
of a tree the leading or main branch, not
side shoots from 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
judicious "cutting back" may be forced
by their tenacity of life to throw out new
side roots and thus become healthy
John Z. Bloss, in Western Ra1ral.