Fig. 36.—Types of tree guards.
The best implement for cutting small limbs is a sharp knife, and for larger limbs a fine-toothed saw. Pruning shears are sometimes used, but they are likely to bruise the wood. If used at all, the blade should always be turned toward the tree so that the bruise made by the supporting bar will be on the portion cut off. Where branches are taken off, the cut should be close to the remaining limb, so that no suggestion of a stub will remain. (Figs. [34] and [35].) Where ends are cut from branches the cut should be just above a bud, and the remaining bud should point in the direction that it is desired the limb should grow.
STAKES AND GUARDS.
Under city conditions young trees need the support of a strong stake as well as protection for the trunk. Boys like to swing around small trees or see the tops fly up if bent to the ground. Men find them convenient hitching posts for their horses, and horses frequently like the taste of the bark or tear it off for the sake of having something to do.
Guards are of many forms ([fig. 36]), from stakes 21/2 inches square set 3 feet in the ground and extending 6 feet above, with heavy-netting placed about the tree and stapled to the stake, to heavy wooden cribs of four stakes and intermediate slats and wrought-iron patterns of many forms.
The trees should be firmly secured to the tops of the guards so that they will not swing against them in the wind and be rubbed. This is best done by securing the tree in place in the guard by two loops of pieces of old garden hose, soft leather, or rope, in such a way as not to bind the tree too tightly while keeping it from swinging much or rubbing. The essentials are a firm support for the tree while young with reasonable protection of the trunk from careless depredations until the tree has reached a diameter of 6 inches or more.
LATER CARE.
If after planting, the season is dry and it becomes necessary to apply water, the ground should be soaked thoroughly, and as soon as it has dried sufficiently to work up loosely it should be hoed or raked to make a good earth mulch. A mulch of strawy manure or litter may be used in place of the earth mulch if desired. The watering should not require repeating for a week or more.
If the weather becomes warm soon after planting and the trees come into leaf, wither, and droop, further pruning may save them. The reason for the difficulty is probably that the growth of the top has been greater than the newly formed roots can support; therefore the additional pruning is likely to restore the balance between the top growth and root growth. At least three-fourths of the remaining young wood should be removed. This may leave the tree looking almost like a bean pole, but if it induces a vigorous root growth the top can easily be re-formed.
Young trees should have an annual inspection, and all crossing branches and any that are not well placed to form a good head should be removed. Attention should be given also to all forks, and where two branches start almost parallel to one another or at a small angle, making a fork liable to split apart as the tree grows, one branch should be removed. Where three branches start from almost the same point there is little likelihood of their splitting apart, but with only two growing at a less angle than 30° there is liable to be trouble in the case of most kinds of trees. On trees on which few but long shoots form, it may be well to remove the ends of such shoots. As a rule, it is undesirable to use for street planting trees with this kind of growth. Young trees should be trained into a desirable shape by the use of a pruning knife each year, so that a saw will not be necessary later. Some trees have a tendency to form too dense a head. The interior branches of these should be removed and the head made as open as possible while the work can be done with a knife. No attempt should be made to alter the natural form of a tree but only to insure its best development. A skillfully pruned young tree will show no evidences of the pruning after three or four years.