The St. Johns herald., 1922-04-27
SUGGESTIONS FOR TREATMENT OF
 TREES DAMAGED BY ICE STORMS

lETepaTeO Dy Cne U0iNeO states department
 of Agriculture.)
 The extensive injury to fruit trees In Wisconsin and parts of Michigan by the recent ice in late February has brought inquiries to the United States Department of Agriculture as to the best methods of treating these trees and repairing the damage. The following suggestions are made by the department and apply mainly to the apple but are applicable to the cherry and other fruit trees.
 The best thing to do with apple, cherry and other fruit trees which have their branches broken down or split and injured by snow and ice, is 6rst to give them a very careful prun- Ing, and, second, to use, as far as pos sible, methods of tree surgery to en- able them to repair and outgrow the injury.
 Proper Methods tn Pruning.
 The pruning of an injured fruit tree with part of its branches broken out requires more cutting and more skill ful pruning than an ordinary normal tree. Each tree presents more or less an individual problem, depending on how severely it Is injured. When one side of the tree has been badly smashed, the other side may require more than normal heading back to attempt to balance the fruit top, at least eventually. Sometimes long, slender branches have escaped, and these likewise require more heading back, and this may be needed a sec ond and third. year before the top of the tree can be shaped into anything like the normal. Water sprouts on the stubs of branches which in ordi- nary pruning would be removed, should be mostly left on an injured tree. h. dividual water sprouts properly locat- ed to form new branches may be se- .ected, headed back slightly if too long, and encouraged to grow into new limbs. Stubs from six inches to a foot pr more in length should not usually be sawed off on these crippled trees If they are in the right location for future framework branches. The ragged ends should be neatly sawed or smOOthed with a knife and the stub left to throw a mass of sprouts, as it usually will do If the top has been pretty generally taken out or removed by breaking and pruning.
 DehOrning or pruning the main branches to stubs is often purposeIy practiced by orchardists to renew the top, and essentially the same methods can be applied in part, even though the dehOrning is forced in this case. Whenever there are any small spurs or branches on the remaining stubs, they should be left to get out new twig growth promptly. Apple trees, especially, sprout very freely from the branches, even though they may be as large as ones arm or larger, so that where there are no spurs or small branches, still new growth is likely to be produced.
 While abnormally slender, high branches or extra long lateral branch es may require heading in to balance up the tree, it is well to leave as much as possible of the top and not try to do all the balancing up and heading back in single year. It will take at least three years to build a new head on ten-year appIe tree which has been badly broken up. In an apple tree with badly smashed top, let all or nearly all the sprouts grow the first year so as to get out as much new foliage as possible and properly feed the root system of the tree. Where the new top is forming rapid ly, however, it is probably all right to remove some of the water sprouts from the trunk during the summer
 Tree Surgery Methods Suggested.
 Trees with split forks or large wounds made by branches being brok- en out, tearing and stripping of bark and wood from the main branch or main trunk, and trees with their tops smashed down beyond recovery pre- sent problems of tree surgery not cOv- cred by ordinary or extraordinary pruning. Each case requires more or less special treatment.