442 The Journal of Forestry. 



cannot have too many branches, as the returning sap from each contributes 

 to the growth of all that part of the stem below it; .... but pruning 

 like thinning a plantation, should be annual, and cannot be too gradual. 



" In timber woods and plantations the trees should stand close enough to 

 discourage the growth of many side boughs, or of any large ones. As the side- 

 boughs become gradually overgrown, and before they are actually killed, they 

 should be removed with a common saw, set wide for the purpose, and the axe 

 and cross-cut saw should gradually and annually thin the plants out to 

 greater distances from each other. Timber may thus be reared ivitliout a single 

 disunited Jcnot. ... If the plants are left too close, weak poles will be the 

 result ; if they are left too wide apart too many side-boughs will be developed. 

 Plantations should be planted too thick to grow and then thinned, taking the 

 worst plants worst placed, and leaving the best plants best placed ; regard 

 being had to what is likely to suit the soil best, and what is intended to be 

 grown permanently. 



"No saying is more true than that ' fools may plant, but it requires a wise 

 man to rear timber.' More than this, it requires a succession of wise men. 

 It is extraordinary that those who by practice are annually convinced of the 

 importance, nay, necessity of thinning their turnips by hoeing, so often neglect 

 .this principle in their plantations. The principle should be practised from the 

 beginjaing ; but if it has been neglected ever so long, ' Sapere aude, incipe.' 

 Nothing has done so much hai'm to plantations as that, ' Oh, it is too late now ! ' 

 It is never too late. Can it ever be too late to begin cutting out dead rubbish ? 

 Can it do harm to take out what is doing harm ? Can the wind be let into 

 plantations by cutting out denuded poles without heads .P Go into such 

 neglected plantations and boldly cut out the dead and dying rubbish, and then 

 gradually and annually thin out the worst plants worst placed, leaving and 

 relieving the best plants best placed. He who perseveres on these principles 

 will very soon in his annual thinnings be cutting boards instead of bavins, 

 besides eventually creating fine permanent plantations. Do not think it a 

 matter of no consequence whether the dead and dying are cut or left standing. 

 The absence of the dead and dying is of the greatest importance to the 

 living. The space occupied by dead heads should be occupied by the living 

 limbs of thrifty stems; and dying, attenuated, waving plants, under the 

 influence and force of the wind, wliip and denude their neighbours much more 

 than stouter plants can. 



" Thinning and pruning should work together, and both should be performed 

 gradually. By rearing timber moderately close from the beginning, and thus 

 depriving the side boughs and lower parts of the stems of light, we not only 

 encourage the heads to grow upwards more rapidly, but prevent the overgrowth 

 of the side branches. All side boughs that are to be taken away, should be 

 gradually sawn off before they die and while they are small, since the new 

 annual growth over a wound is curved till it is wholly healed." 



As an example of the merit which pruning lays claim to, the author's 

 remarks. — 



" Suppose a nursery plant with two equal eaders ; both are weak in com- 

 parison with the stem below, because each has only one half the sap which 

 ascends through the stem, and also each has only its own descending sap, 

 while the descending sap of both deposits on the stem below. If one leader is 

 taken off, new vigour is given to the other. The growth which was formerly 

 divided is now united, and the increase in the bulk of the stem of the leader 

 left is now doubled. But this twofold increase of the stem above the fork is no 



