1747. The averruncator (fig. 380.) is a compound blade attached to a handle from five to eight feet in length, and operating by means of a lever moved by a cord and pulley. Its use is to enable a person standing on the ground to prune standard trees, which it readily does, when the handle is eight feet long, to the height of fifteen feet; and, by using step-ladders, any greater height may be attained. Branches one inch and a half in diameter may readily be cut off with this instrument. There is a species made entirely of metal, to be used with one hand for pruning shrubs or hedges: of this species there are varieties made at Sheffield of different sizes and qualities. There are other implements of this kind employed for cutting young shoots in summer; one by the Dutch (fig. 382.), and another in Britain (fig. 383.). This last is a valuable instrument, not only for checking rival leading shoots of young forest trees in June and July, but for thinning out the summer shoots in standard fruit trees, and in training plants of different kinds on high walls. Fig. 388. is another species of averruncator very similar to fig. 380.
