394 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [Oct, 



COUNT A, BE GARS' BOOK— A CRITICISM. 



SIR, — This treatise was republished in vol. v. of the Journal of 

 Forestry, and as Mr. Sargeant's translation may be adopted as a 

 handbook for forestry students, you may admit the following remarks 

 on it. " Eustic," vol. v. p. 820, pointed out that its advice to nail 

 wood or metal over cavities in growing trees would cause more 

 injury to the saws used in cutting the tree up, than the timber was 

 worth. 



At vol. V. p. 402, M. de Cars says: " The secret of obtaining a 

 complete cure in all operations requiring the removal of a branch, 

 either living or dead, consists in cutting close to and perfectly even 

 with the trunk. . . . Coal tar as a covering for wounds made in 

 pruning renders the application of this rule in all cases entirely safe." 



It is a great fallacy to suppose that the wound, caused by cutting 

 off a branch even with the trunk, is ever healed over. The dead 

 surface is only covered over with living wood. 



At p. 405 (loe. cit.) he says: "The principle being established 

 that large wounds can be made without injury to the tree, if care 

 be taken in the manner indicated to prevent decay, it is easy to 

 show the advantage of cutting off injured branches of any size." 

 Timber merchants do not think so, and would rather see a decayed 

 stump projecting from the trunk of an oak than a scar, showing 

 that a large wound has been healed over. 



The diagram at p. 404 {loc. cit.) clearly shows that cutting a 

 branch off in a line with the trunk carries tlie defect in the timber 

 well into the heart-timber of the tree. However thoroughly the. 

 tarred wound is covered over by living wood, the living never joins 

 the dead in the sense that a wound in a man heals. Indeed, 

 destruction to timber must follow an adherence to the theories of 

 this healing. 



At p. 549 there is an instance of an oak tree having seven 

 wounds made on its trunk from ten to twenty inches wide. If any 

 two of these, averaging fifteen inches wide, were at right angles to 

 each other, they would spoil every plank in the tree. 



On page 576 the author says: "A casual examination will show 

 that between the surface, which has been cut smooth and treated 

 with coal tar, and the new tissues which soon cover it, there is only 

 the thinnest crack or fissure, analogous to the natural cracks or 

 openings which always appear in wood in seasoning, and which, as 

 is well known, do not diminish its strength, elasticity, or value for 

 all industrial purposes," 



Those who have worked up timber know very well that the 



