88 



leader he had also succeeded, by the same method, in recovering the tapering 

 form of the tree. He could mention several instances. From a fine Abies 

 Morinda, or Himalaya spruce fir at Bredwardine vic.^rage of some 30 or more 

 years growth, he cut two out of three leaders of rather large size some few 

 years back, and it is now a most beautiful tree. Several Corsican or Laricio 

 pines, near Llandudno, of about the same age, had also turned out equally 

 well under the same treatment. In common spruce firs and in many other 

 coniferre— so sparing in leaders as they always were — he had been very successful 

 in restoring a leader, or in procuring side shoots where tliey were required. 

 He mentioned those trees particularly because they were of all trees the shyest 

 of the pruner's knife. The only point in which he differed from the President 

 was as to the best time for pruning. When done so late in spring as he had 

 named, the branches were full of sap, and sometimes bled so freely as to weaken 

 the tree. 



The President did not believe in bleeding— (a laugh)— that is to say, the 

 sap drawn up by the roots from the soil was not true blood until it had been 

 acted upon in the leaves of the tree. It was simply a loss to the sap from the 

 soil, which contained an abundant supply to replace it. It was the descending 

 sap which gave nourishment to the tree, and there was no loss of this. (A voice : 

 " What of the vine ? ") The vine was a fruit tree, and was grown under 

 exceptional circumstances, with a forced circulation, and usually a circumscribed 

 root supply. This did not apply to our forest trees. 



A general conversation now ensued, in which the opinion seemed to prevail 

 that bleeding was a term not properly applicable to the escape of the ruing fluid 

 from which the sap is made, and that the effusion of the ground sap which occurs 

 to the Birch, the Sycamore, and some fruit trees when lopijed, is less important 

 than is commonly supposed. 



John Llotd, Esq., of Huntington Court, remarked that of the three 

 modes of pruning oak trees of which the President had given an account, that 

 of shortening the branch was, wherever practicable, the most advantageous. 

 The first method — that of cutting off the limbs close to the tree — was objection- 

 able, because, although the wound usually healed closely over, yet the core of 

 the branch remained in the tree unaltered, and would form a, bad knot in the 

 timber when felled. Hence timber merchants looked very suspiciously on hedge- 

 row timber, which were usually lopped in this manner. Of course, if the trees 

 were young saplin oak, it is far better to take off the young branch close to the 

 stem. The second plan — that of cutting off the branches a foot or so from 

 the tree — is to be studiously avoided. In all cases, such a mode of pruning 

 is very unsightly, and sooner or later the stump decays, and the wet finds 

 admission into the trunk of the tree. The third method, and that recommended 

 by the president, is the best to be adapted in all full-grown trees. In removing 

 the large branches they should be taken off at some distance from the stem, and 

 immediately above a twig or branch of siiflicient size and strong enough to draw 



