516 PRUNING THE LARCH. . [Dec: 



preserves, thickets, or for shelter clumps ; for in such situations, 

 where a damp close atmosphere, under the drip and shade from 

 other trees, prevails, it thrives admirably, and is better adapted for 

 such positions than any other coniferous tree, excepting perhaps the 

 yew." 



PRUNING THE LARCH. 



THE fact that the larch may be pruned with comparative 

 impunity, leads some foresters to the conclusion that the 

 practice is beneficial. But when it is considered that the oldest 

 and finest trees in this country have never had either saw or edge 

 tool applied to them for any purpose except the removal of dead 

 or injured branches, the reasons for such a conclusion arc not very 

 obvious. Dead branches should certainly be removed as soon as 

 they appear, but the living should, I think, be allowed to remain 

 till the heartwood they are in connection with is fully formed. 

 But very usually larch is grown too closely to enable the lower 

 branches to exist. They die for want of an adequate supply of 

 light and air, and they die usually long before their functions to 

 the main stem or trunk can be dispensed with without detriment 

 to the latter. 



There can be no doubt that the retention of the branches of the 

 larch for as long a period as possible, or till they naturally die, is 

 of the utmost importance to the health of the tree and to the rapid 

 development of timber. Every one who has had opportunity for 

 observing the difference between a larch growing in the open and one 

 that is surrounded by neighbours to the point of suffocation, must have 

 been struck with the superiority of the former over the latter. The 

 feathery branches of the free-grown tree have a manifest influence 

 on the stem, for you observe that it is much thicker than the close- 

 grown tree, and is also healthier and more vigorous. . Perhaps more 

 of larch disease or failure to bring it to good timber condition is 

 caused by pruning and close-growing than by any other cause. 

 Due care should be exercised by the forester for the timely removal 

 of duplicate leaders, should they make their appearance, but I think 

 there ought to be no other measure of pruning taken till after the 

 trees are ten or twelve years planted, and even then it should be 

 practised with great reserve. 



Lakix. 



