. A treatise on pruning forest and ornamental Fig. 46. —Trunk of an Oak injuredby neglect and bad pruning. Fig. 47. — Trunk of the sameltree two years after treatment. tempted, its decay would have been rapid and com-plete ; without pruning it must soon have died]without yielding anything more valuable than fire-wood. The removal of numerous branches, for the purpose!of restoring vigor to a decrepit tree, may seem op-posed to what has already been stated in regard to]the functions of leaves in elaborating plant food;jand it might be argued that pruning must be inju-rious, because, in s
. A treatise on pruning forest and ornamental Fig. 46. —Trunk of an Oak injuredby neglect and bad pruning. Fig. 47. — Trunk of the sameltree two years after treatment. tempted, its decay would have been rapid and com-plete ; without pruning it must soon have died]without yielding anything more valuable than fire-wood. The removal of numerous branches, for the purpose!of restoring vigor to a decrepit tree, may seem op-posed to what has already been stated in regard to]the functions of leaves in elaborating plant food;jand it might be argued that pruning must be inju-rious, because, in shortening or removing a branch,some of the leaf organs essential to the growth of thetree must also be destroyed. Such an argument isbased on a popular error of very general acceptance. It is often claimed that tlie healthy growth of aplant depends on the number of its leaves. It is PRUNING RESERVE TREES. 49. not, however, the number of leaves, but the totalsuperficial area of leaf surface, which determines thevigor of growth of the ordinary practice of thenurseries affords a familiar ex-ample. A seedling tree several yearsold bears, perhaps, twenty orthirty leaves ; its stem is notthicker than a quill, and itdoes not grow vigorously. If,however, this plant is cut downto the ground in the spring, itwill be replaced, in four or five ^^^^ months, by a stout vigorous i?- restored to•^ ^ vigor by numerous large amputa- shoot often an inch in diameter, carrying perhaps only six or eight very largeleaves ; the superficial leaf area of the new plant islarger, although the actual number of its leaves maybe considerably smaller. This is what good pruningaccomplishes; i. e., while it may reduce the number ofleaves on a tree, it increases their capacity to elabo-rate plant food through increased superficial pruning provides too, it must be remem-ber
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectpruning, bookyear1906
