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Show other item. Tne student of the art and science of pruning should visit some old 01 churd and there observe the result ct the early training as usually done. Keep all forks cut out of the top and especially where the leader is affected. THE SYMMETRY OF A TBS2. In the Denver Field and Farm hrank Crowley Tells How to Secure It. The first essential in making a substantial and well balanced head to a tree is to have a good, strong, straight leader in the center. In selecting the main branches that arc-to arc-to form the head one fact must be constantly borne in mind, and that is, a limb never gets any further from the ground where it is joined to the main" stem, Than the pointj where it started, and if one is left every two or three inches along the body, it is evident that when they have, attained a size of five or six inches in diameter, some will have been choked out, others badly crowded, the leader starved, and the symmetry of the tree destroyed. It is a very common error to ignore this principle and to work with the idea in view that the proportion of the variou parts will continue. In the many orchards where we see the saw being used there is not any' too much wood in the top nor are there any too many - main limbs butthe trouble lies in . the fact that these main limbs are not rightly distributed. distrib-uted. The pruner must be guided by the particular tree in hand. No rules can be laid down. The ideal way to " form the head of a tree would be with a branch coming out on alternate sides, so as to balance properly, every five to seven inches all along the leader from the lowest part of the head to the very top of the leader. Of course where such an arrangement can be made each branch is smaller, as the main stem or leader ascends and the entire symmetry of the tree is preserved, while there will never be any crowding crowd-ing of the main branches and consequent conse-quent decay. But not more than, half of the trees that come from the nursery can be found so branched 'as to make this system entirely practicable, and with the ordinary tree a system that will be more easily managed and give about as good results Is to select three or four branches, that come out around the stem so as to balance well and make these form the foundation of the head. Remove all growths below, be-low, this, if any remain, and for ten or fifteen inches up the main stem, when another set, balancing like the first, except that the branches of this set when bent down and outward out-ward would occupy the space between be-tween each of the limbs in the set below, should be selected, and so on up as the tree grows. The first two or three years of this work of forming the head, or until the tree is brought into bearing, is the most critical period in its life and more depends on leaving these main limbs the right distance apart where they are joined to the trunk than on any; I |