Oil Pntinmr and Tliiiining Forest Trees 



487 



done to the timber by the process of remov- 

 ing dead boughs than this test of its relative 

 value in the market. Our arguments may be 

 all wrong, but the sensitive barometer of prices 

 shews that whatever be the case with the 

 arguments, our practice at least is right. 



The evidence which we have adduced, it 

 will be observed, has been chiefly, if not 

 entirely, confined to oak trees ; but the same 

 principle that applies to the oak applies to 

 others. The oak has not a different organiza- 

 tion from the beech or the elm : Nature treats 

 all alike. We imagine that this will be 

 admitted. Should, however, anyone maintain 

 tliat the oak requires different treatment from 

 other trees, and that the results drawn from 

 it are peculiar to itself, and not applicable to 

 other trees, Ave apprehend it will be for those 



who say so to point out in what the difference 

 consists, and to explain the grounds on which 

 it rests. 



The only difference which we recognize in 

 forest trees in relation to the point we have 

 had under consideration, is the difference 

 between deciduous and coniferous trees ; and 

 so far as pruning is concerned, it will scarcely 

 be disputed that if it is inapplicable and 

 injurious to the former, it must be ten times 

 more so to the latter, seeing that, from their 

 branches being so much more regular and so 

 rarely replaced, to remove them once is to 

 remove them for ever, there being no hope 

 of young shoots again appearing to supply 

 their place ; unless, indeed, in the case of 

 a very few exceptional species, such as the 

 Deodar, 



