6. On how many of the twigs can you see a scar left by the leaf when it dropped off (Fig. 310 and Fig. 311 _a, a_)? Compare the leaf scars on different twigs. Notice the strange scar on the butternut (Fig. 311). It looks like the face of an old sheep. [Illustration: _Fig. 310. Horsechestnut._] [Illustration: _Fig. 311. Butternut._] 7. Do you see any cocoons on your twig? 8. You all know the rings on an apple twig that tell how much it grew each year. Do you find rings on other twigs? Do you see them on any of these pictures? 9. What do you suppose makes these rings? Do you think there was once a large terminal bud where these rings are? LEAFLET LV. PRUNING.[73] BY ALICE G. McCLOSKEY. (Compare Leaflet XLVI.) [73] Extended from Junior Naturalist Monthly, February, 1901. [Illustration] First snow, then sleet, and then a down-pour of rain--it stormed all day. At night-fall it grew colder. The wind blew fiercely. The twigs and branches fell on the white crust which covered the earth. Nature was pruning the trees. Have you ever seen your father go into the orchard and prune his trees? Why did he do it? Compare the work done by nature and that which your father does. Which seems to be the more careful pruner? Let us experiment a little. It will please Uncle John. He always wants his boys and girls to find out things for themselves. Select a branch of lilac or some other shrub. Mark it so that you will always know it. Count the buds on the branch. Watch them through the spring and the summer. Note the number that become branches. You will then know that nature prunes the trees. If you think a minute, you will see that pruning is necessary in the plant world. Suppose a branch has thirty buds, and that every bud should produce thirty branches, each of which in turn should produce thirty more,--do you think there would be any room left in the world for boys and girls? Would a tree be able to hold so many branches? You certainly have noticed decayed holes in trees. Did you ever wonder why they were there? I suppose that most persons never wonder about it at all; or if they do give it any passing thought, they say it is only "natural" for trees to have rotten spots. But these rotten spots mean that once the tree was injured. Perhaps the injury was the work of a careless or thoughtless man who pruned the tree. Very few persons seem really to know how to remove the limbs of a tree so that the wound will heal readily. As you go and come, observe how the trees have been pruned. Do you see long "stubs" left, where limbs have been cut? Yes; and that is the wrong way to cut them. They should be cut close to the main branch or trunk, for then the wounds will heal over better (Fig. 312). If we abused our cows and horses, as we sometimes abuse our shade trees, what would become of the animals? [Illustration: _Fig. 312. The wrong way and the right way to remove a limb._]