1885.] COUNT DE CARS' BOOK. 503 



from the trunk of an oak than a scar showing that a large wound 

 had been healed over." 



The preference of the timber merchant is obvious, since he is in 

 no doubt about the value of the timber, as he sees a visible defect 

 in the decayed stump \ and if he is a buyer, he does not fail to 

 point out the defect to the owner, and therefore trys to buy the tree 

 as inferior and worthless timber. 



" The diagram clearly shows that cutting a branch off in line 

 with the trunk, carries the defect in the timber well into the heart 

 of the tree." 



The cutting away of a branch in line with the trunk does not 

 carry a defect into the timber unless the branch was before unsound, 

 in which case the defect is not the result of pruning, but is due 

 to the branch being dead aforetime. 



" 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." 



That would depend altogether on how the tree was planked, and 

 on what part of the tree the wound was placed. But apart from 

 the consideration whether such a method of pruning would or 

 would not render the timber useless, no sane person, possessed of 

 even the crudest notions of pruning, would ever think of removing 

 two such branches from a tree at once. Why, two such branches 

 cut away together, w^ould represent a surface- wound of thirty inches, 

 which, even upon a very huge trunk, could not be other than most 

 prejudicial, if not forcing untimely death on the most vigorous 

 subject. 



Captain Rogers says : " If a branch dies through slow decay, the 

 new growth around the dead stump closes in gradually and carries 

 the defect out into the sap of the timber." 



Now the evil effect of such a method is capitally illustrated in 

 the diagram on p. 406 of the same volume from which- Captain 

 Rogers quotes so freely. The bad consequence of such indifferent 

 methods is so well depicted there that no other condemnation of it 

 is necessary. 



Anything conducive to the greatest production of excellent 

 mercantile timber cannot be excluded from forest management. 

 Pruning is so ; nay, more, it is an absolute necessity of that. 



Count de Cars remarks that " the future value of a tree depends 

 on the manner in which the operation is performed ; and the person 

 to whom this work is entrusted should fully understand its import- 

 ance." With that I quite agree. And I would add that the future 

 value of the tree depends as much upon the time at which the 



