1757. Of the garden scarifiers or bark-sealers, there are several sorts. They are generally hooked edge-tools or blunt knives, used for removing the already scaling off external epidermis of the stem and branches of fruit trees of some age. They vary in size and strength, in order to suit different sorts of trees, and different parts of the same tree. The two-handed instrument (fig. 398.) is for removing the bark from the axillï¾µ of the branches, or other angular parts, difficult to be got at. The small hook (fig. 399.) is for lateral branches of one and two inches in diameter; and the knife hook (fig. 400.) for the trunks of the largest trees. This operation should be performed in the middle of winter; and, to guard against accidents, the whole of a tree should seldom be done in one season.
