when thoroughly done, is also very helpful to the tree. Trees with large
crowns of branches are frequently seen thinly furnished with foliage,
and altogether sickly owing to unhealthy or insufficient roots. The
balance between top and bottom has been destroyed. To restore it in some
degree the top-growth may be reduced by pruning out and shortening back
branches here and there, wherever it can be done without spoiling the
appearance of the tree. This demands careful judgment, but some old and
sickly trees may certainly be restored in a measure by this help. It is
of no value in the case of trees with decayed trunks, nor with those
like our Common Oak, which will not break readily from old wood. But
Elms, Robinias, and Red Oaks are among those that respond to this
treatment.

Old trees with insecure branches can often be saved from destruction by
fastening the main branches together on to the trunk. The common
practice of putting an iron collar round the branch is a mistake. The
iron prevents the branch expanding naturally, and ultimately chokes it.
A better way is to use a strong iron rod with a plate at the end, and
instead of supporting the branch by encircling it, a hole is bored right
through the centre of it, through which the rod is pushed from the
outer side. The rod should be of tough iron or steel, and should exactly
fit the hole bored by the augur; the portions embedded in the wood
should be smeared with coal tar before they are pushed through, so as to
make the holes as nearly as possible air and water-tight. One end of the
rod should be "threaded" sufficiently to allow of the limbs being braced
slightly by screwing up the nut, and thus supporting some of their
weight. Finally, the bark should be neatly cut away so as to let in each
of the iron plates closer to the living wood, for by this means the time
required for closing over the plate by new wood is shortened. In this
way the weight is borne by the iron plate, which should, by removing
sufficient bark, be allowed to fit close in to the wood. New bark will
gradually close over and hide the plate, and instead of an ugly collar
cutting into the wood, the only evidence of artificial aid is the rod
coming from the inner side of the branch.

Branches or snags that have to be removed should be sawn off quite close
to the trunk or larger branch from which they spring. When a stump, even
not more than a few inches long, is left, the new bark and wood are
unable