1884.1 LEAF CANOPY AND mUNINCr. 1G;J 



apply the saw to green branches in order to secure a more desirable 

 form and greater length of clean bole. He may also have to clean 

 the boles periodically with a billhook of the small epicormic shoots 

 which ])reak out on them in the light and have a tendency to dry up 

 the crowns. Pruning with due care demands time and labour, and 

 it is therefore costly. It will not be expedient to slash a two-inch 

 branch off a promising oak with an axe or a billhook. 



The most expeditious pruning, consistent with prudence for the 

 larger branches, m ay perhaps be effected with a narrow saw blade 

 (less than an inch in breadth), stretched tightly, after the manner of 

 a bowstring, across a curved or open wooden frame. The same kind 

 of saw, to cut with the upward stroke, attached to the end of a fifteen - 

 foot pole, will also be useful. In using the saw to cut off a branch 

 at once close to the bole, the first cut should be made on the under- 

 side of the branch, completing the sawing from above or from the 

 side. Thus, when the branch falls to the ground, it will not tear 

 away any bark from the trunk, nor leave a fissure for the lodgment 

 of wet and the commencement of rot. The wounds made by a fine 

 small-toothed saw will, with ordinary precaution, be sufficiently 

 smooth, especially if they receive a coat of tar in early winter as 

 soon as it will adhere. 



The attempt to raise unmixed Oak with pruning in this way 

 will certainly continue to be made ; and on good sites a fair measure 

 of success may be met with. Nevertheless, there seems to be no 

 sufficient reason why something more should not be done towards 

 conserving the properties ond condition of the soil. To this end the 

 expedient already referred to, of planting soil-sheltering wood, is 

 well adapted. After the Oaks have attained a good height and 

 commence to be carpeted with grass and infested with weeds, plants 

 should be set in the lighter spaces and gaps, chiefly of such kinds of 

 wood as can subsist in the twilight shade of a grove. Shade- 

 enduring kinds are Beech, Hornbeam, Silver Fir, and Spruce Y\\\ 

 and of forest shrubs Holly, Juniper, and perhaps Elder may also be 

 of some use o.s stop-gaps. 



In rearing those needle woods which, being defective in foliage, 

 do not form a thoroughly umbrageous canopy, the same expedient of 

 underplanting may be employed wUh advantage both to the soil 

 and also in consequence to their own continued growtli. Of all of 

 them the Larch is the most deficient in shading power, and has the 

 greatest need of this assistance. The Scots Tine, too, though oftener 

 satisfying the requirements of complete shade, will, not unfre(iuently, 

 in an advanced stage, leave many gaps in its canopy. Here also the 

 growth of the covert and the suitable conditions of the soil may be 

 enhanced by underplanting. 



