1883.J EDITOIVS BOX. 149 



TREE PRUNING. 



Sir, — Under the' heading of * Forest Work for the Month,' in your 

 August issue, Mr. A. Paterson, in liis valuable directions, says : ' In 

 ordinary practice in well-managed jJautations, large branche are 

 seldom removed close to the bole ; but in cases of necessity this is a 

 good season for performing the operation, as the wound readily heals 

 when made about this time.' Will Mr. Paterson be so kind as to say 

 if the removal of large branches, tay a foot in diameter from the bole 

 of trees 2 ft. in diameter, leads on to the injury of tlie health of 

 trees, even should the wounds thus caused be carefully painted or 

 tarred over, and if such wounds would more readily heal if done in 

 August than if done in December or January ? 



Prom what ]\Ir. Paterson says regarding the state of the grove of 

 trees of which he speaks, tliere is but little room left us to doubt for 

 one moment but that the blemishes in the timber were all due to the 

 crowded state in which the trees were grown, having killed the large 

 side branches, which gradually decayed and dropped off, and yet 

 there may be a possibility of large sums of money having been spent 

 in the pruning of these same trees, after a fashion, at some time. 



Many years ago, when passing along a road some miles out from 

 Carlisle, I saw some men pruning some Oaks 15 ft. to 20 ft. high, by 

 first starting with a few of the strongest lower branches, which they 

 cut off from G in. to 18 in. in length out from the bole, and it appeared 

 to be no object with them whether cut at a live branch or not. In 

 coming up to where the men were at work, I saw that most of the 

 branches so pruned were quite underneath those above them, and 

 therefore shaded by them from the sun's rays. I called one of the 

 men's attention to the way they appeared to me to disfigure the 

 trees by their mode of pruning, and he said that was nothing to the 

 good it did them, as the vital forces of the trees by such pruning 

 were directed, not to the making of superfluous branch timber, but 

 upwards, to make good useful trunk or bole timber. His reason for 

 not cutting these stumps off by the bole was in consequence of the 

 injury such treatment %vould do the bole. I passed on and began to 

 digest this mental food. j\Iy knowledge of vegetable and animal 

 biology is no doubt very limited. It therefore may be entirely due 

 to this that my imagination failed to conjure up anything that could 

 justify such torturing of these trees, with a view to accomplish any 

 useful purpose. It appeared to me lilce cutting the left arm of a 

 promising schoolboy, so as to cause so much more of the roast meat 

 and plum pudding he ate to pass by the making of a strong arm 

 upwards, to make a larger development of brain ; but as this idea, 

 had it occurred to the prnncr, miglit only discourage Iiim in his 



