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growing branchlet, under-cutting it first to prevent spaltering, and pare the 

 wound as much as possible into symmetry with the direction of the new leader. 

 In another year or two, serve this new leader exactly in the same way, taking it 

 off with a similar oblique cut, but on the side opposite to the last, so as to leave 

 the new leader (No. 2) growing as nearly as possible in the direction of the 

 parent branch that was first amputated. Year after year, or with an interval 

 of two or three years, as the case may require, let this process be repeated. 

 The resiilt is this. The growth of the original condemned branch is entirely 

 stopped without its being itself killed. Meantime, the stem (of a growing tree) 

 will have been increasing in girth ; and the condemned branch which formerly 

 looked so large becomes so small, and apparently (but not really) shrunk, in 

 proportionate size, that it generally may, after a few years, he removed entirely, 

 without injury or eyesore, close to the stem : for this, I need hardly say, may 

 be always done when the proportionate size of the cicatrix to the stem is such 

 as to heal perfectly in two or three summers. 



I am sorry to appear as an advocate of deception, but I can hardly exag- 

 gerate the success of it in this case, if the amputation is performed at the proper 

 time of the year, which is in the early summer, immediately after the leaf is 

 expanded. Every week that is allowed to elapse after this time, the operation 

 is less effective, and the worst time of all is the late autumn, the time commonly 

 adopted by woodmen. The reason of this is simple. The new branch leader 

 has time to establish itself as a life retainer to the stump, and if healthy, does a 

 good deal towards healing the wound, especially if cut very obliqiiely. The 

 alburnum is protected before its enemy the frost comes ; and when the foliage 

 falls away (the trying moment for appearance) the summer growth will have 

 given to the new leader something of the character of a, real continuation of the 

 branch that has been thus foreshortened. 



Of course all pruning of a neglected tree presents some degree of mutila- 

 tion to the eye for a longer or a shorter period. Foreshortening a branch — 

 that is dealing with it as I recommend — can never be in itself desirable. It 

 claims only to be the best form of secondary treatment of that which was not 

 dealt with at the proper time. The great advantage of the system is that it is 

 based upon the physiological principles of growth, instead of acting against them ; 

 that it takes Time into partnership, and produces the result desired with the 

 least ultimate deterioration of the appearance, and none whatever of the timber, 

 of the tree. It is difficult, without the aid of a diagram, to convey by descrip- 

 tion the mode and the progress of the treatment ; but this aid I will give it, 

 should these hints hereafter appear in our transactions. 



The Kev. R. H. Williams said that he could endorse every word of the 

 excellent practical statement the President had put so clearly before them, not 

 only with regard to deciduous trees but in respect of evergreens also, and parti- 

 cularly of the conifers. Shy as the fir tribe were of side pruning, by proceeding 

 on the President's plan of a sloping cut near a twig, he had made them throw out 

 new branches and feather to the ground. Where there was more than one 



