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The Country Gentleman s Magazine 



soundest in the whole system of forestry, can- 

 not be observed. Hence pruning," says he, 

 "may be regarded as a necessary evil, to 

 which the Avise must submit because of the 

 ignorant ; the careful to cure the evils in- 

 flicted by the careless." 



Now, looking at pruning from the point of 

 view which Dr Lindley had here in view- 

 viz., the management of forest trees for the 

 purpose of making timber, we dissent /// toto 

 from the exception or qualification by which 

 he seeks to maim his general principle. We 

 hold the general principle as applied to forest 

 trees to be absolute as regards the trees them- 

 selves, and to admit of no exceptions except 

 such as are foreign to the welfare of the trees 

 themselves. For example, we may cut off" a 

 branch that obstructs a path or excludes a 

 view ; but we do so not to benefit the tree — 

 we know that it will injure it — but for the 

 special purpose of using the path or enjoying 

 the prospect. The way in which this quali- 

 fication of Dr Lindley's may be and has been 

 misread, will be seen by the practice recom- 

 mended by Mr Brown, one of the chief 

 authorities on forest management. In his 

 " Forester" he says : — 



'' The proper manner of proceeding with 

 the pruning of forest trees, as they are newly 

 lifted from the nursery, and preparatory to 

 planting them out, is to shorten all the larger 

 branches that have the appearance of gaining 

 strength upon*the top or leading shoot of the 

 young tree. This shortening of the larger 

 branches ought to be done in such a manner 

 as to leave only from one-half to one-third of 

 their whole length remaining, with if possible 

 a few small twigs upon it, in order the more 

 readily to elaborate the sap as it rises in the 

 spring; and in this state the young trees may 

 be planted with the greatest assurance of suc- 

 cess. The great advantage of this method of 

 pruning )^oung trees is that when the sap 

 rises in them, the first summer after planting, 

 there being a regular supply of small propor- 

 tionable branches along the main stem, leaves 

 are formed and sap is drawn up regularl}- to 

 every part of the tree, consequently the tree 

 maintains an equal vigour throughout. Were 

 all the branches left upon the young trees, 



the roots, from the effects of removal, would 

 not be able to supply the whole with due 

 nourishment ; and the consequence would 

 very likely be, that the plants would die 

 down to the ground level,]^from which part of 

 the trees numerous young shoots would issue, 

 much in the same manner as they do from 

 the cut part of those trees which have been 

 over-pruned. 



"It is now a well-ascertained truth among 

 all practical foresters, that when a young tree 

 is in a vigorous state of growth, and the wood 

 full of sap, previous to its having made any 

 heartwood, any branch may be taken off" with- 

 out doing the least injury to it. It is there- 

 fore just at this stage of the existence of a 

 tree that it can with certainty be made to do 

 well or otherwise according as it is attended 

 to, to give the top the lead in the growth, to 

 check the stronger branches, and to give the 

 tree that shape it may be desired it should 

 have when it attains full age." — BroioiCs 

 Forester, 409. 



It is difficult to imagine a greater accumu- 

 lation of errors and mistaken notions than 

 are crowded together into these sentences,, 

 and they are so confounded together that it 

 is difficult to pull apart and point out sepa- 

 rately the individual blunders. He begins 

 by shortening, as he calls it, all the larger 

 branches that have the appearance of gaining 

 strength upon the leading shoot. Now, of 

 course, it must depend upon the interpreta- 

 tion which he puts upon the words, " the 

 appearance of gaining upon the leading shoot," 

 how far this is justifiable. Were it only that 

 when he sees a conifer with two leaders almost 

 equal in length growing straight up close 

 together, he should remove one, something 

 might be said in its favour as an exception to 

 the general principle. But that is not his 

 meaning. His idea is on the -principle of 

 prevention being better than cure, to take a 

 bond of fate, and remove all the strong 

 branches near the top of the tree. It is a 

 policy on a par with that of the Eastern kings,, 

 who no sooner were seated on the throne 

 than they shortened all their brothers and 

 sisters for fear of the possibility of their at 

 some future time entering into competition foi" 



