RETORT ON THE PRUNING OF FOREST TREES. 45 



trees ought not at once to be thinned and pruned severely, in 

 order to make up for the overlook. The writer has often seen 

 such instances where the plantations were, in one season, deprived 

 of almost every nurse, and the standard trees themselves divested 

 of every branch which could be conveniently reached. The naked 

 and forlorn appearance presented by such sudden and indiscrimi- 

 nate attack on the trees, was melancholy in the extreme, and 

 productive of the most injurious effects. The proper course in all 

 such cases is to prune sparingly, beginning by shredding off a 

 few of the lower scraggy branches, and gradually thinning out 

 and shortening the others, till reduced to one leader, and the 

 tree becomes properly balanced. By such means the vigour of 

 the subject is less interfered with, and it is allowed the best pos- 

 sible chance of rectifying what was wrong in its former state. 



But beyond all question, the much better way is to attend to 

 this matter before planting. Every young hardwood tree ought, 

 at the first, to be reduced to one leader,, and all straggling laterals 

 shortened. If this be carefully done, little more will be required 

 in the way of pruning for three or four years afterwards, although 

 it might be well to look to the trees occasionally, in case of acci- 

 dents to leaders, &c. A regular annual examination might then 

 be made with great advantage, for the purpose of thinning out- 

 side shoots where necessary, more especially those of a perpendi- 

 cular tendency, and coming away strong from the bole. All 

 such ought immediately to be cut clean away, the others merely 

 shortened. This would admit a free circulation of air, and give 

 clear head room, while the nourishment supplied by the roots being 

 thus directed more exclusively into the trunk and proper branches, 

 will furnish sufficient matter for adding a healthy and substantial 

 ring of wood every year, as well as producing a luxuriant and 

 beautiful foliage, as essential for maturing the timber, as the roots 

 are for inspiring the tree with life in a generous flow of sap. 



If plantations be treated in the manner indicated, the work of 

 the forester will be reduced to a proper method, and ultimately 

 lessened in amount. By the time the trees attain the age of 

 fifteen or twenty years — but not much before that period — he 

 might begin to clear away the lower branches from the trunk. 

 If the shortening process above recommended has been carefully 

 attended to while the trees were young, the increased How of sap 

 passing up the main stem will have caused the lower branches 

 to become in proportion more stunted ; and in their case close 

 pruning may now be adopted with much benefit and little or no 

 risk of injury. The less vigorous appearance of such shoots will 

 point out the necessity for their removal, and also show where 

 the dismemberment should stop. The lopping off of one or 

 perhaps two tiers of such branches in any one season will be 

 sufficient to preserve the trees in the best possible condition ; 



