1886.] LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 71^ 



imitate nature in all her ways, we shall have to he contented t(j 

 ])ur.sue the most rational way of producing the most nseful and 

 must valuable timber. There is a vast destruction of tree-life in 

 the forests of nature ; but that is not relevant to the matter under 

 discussion, and is only alluded to here by the way. 



Captain Eogers says : "A wound twenty inches would take more 

 than twenty years to be covered over witli new wood." Xow if 

 the work of pruning has been properly attended to from the 

 beginning, there should be no branches so large as that named to 

 cut off when the tree is old. This brings out once more very 

 clearly that the work of pruning, to be well done, must be begun 

 early. The force of vitality is in full flow when the tree is young, 

 and wounds made on the trunk by branch amputation are soon 

 liealed — in fact, scarcely felt by the tree, and leave no depreciati\e 

 blemish in the body of the timber. 



But rather than have our forests thinned and pruned in the 

 barbarous fashion they are sometimes done, nature's treatment 

 might be preferable. Captain liogers says, I do not " distinguish 

 between death and decay." That was a very nice distinction 

 to make ; but, without being ambiloquous, the subjoined definition 

 may suflice. Decay is anterior and posterior of death. Death is 

 an advanced stage of decay, but not the last. 



Although I am not able to agree with Captain liogers on this 

 question of pruning, it is nevertheless most gratifying to find a 

 gentleman of his position and ability not above discussing practical 

 matters in whatever way related to this highly important branch of 

 rural economy. 



At the same time, I hope " Count de Cars' book " on pruning 

 will be very widely read by every one directly or indirectly 

 interested in the progress of forestry ; not because they will not 

 find some ground of dissent with the theories therein propounded, 

 but because it is a valualile treatise on the scientific manipulation 

 of a branch of practical forestry comprehensively demonstrated. — 

 I am, yours faithfully, Jas. Faequiiarson. 



Glendye, February -I'l, 1886. 



APPOINTMENT. 



Lord Iddesleigh has selected Mr. D. JNIorris, Director of the 

 Public Gardens, Jamaica, for the appointment of Assistant Director 

 of the Eoyal Botanic Gardens at Kew. 



