CHAPTER V 



Causes of variation in growth — Retardation and acceleration — Pol- 

 larding — its meaning— Frequency — Causes — Results — Rings of 

 wood — Hollow trunks becoming solid. 



The rate of growth in yew-trees is very variable, — 

 at one time becoming so slow as to seem, to the 

 ordinary observer, altogether arrested ; at another 

 period growing with a rapidity far beyond that of 

 the usual rate of increase. 



All the conditions which conduce to variation 

 require somewhat minute consideration before we 

 can arrive at an approximate idea — and all esti- 

 mates of this kind can only be approximate — of the 

 age of any of these trees. 



First, then, of 



Pollards. — The conditions on which pollarding 

 depend are of several kinds, but a word or two 

 is necessary as to the meaning of the term ' pol- 

 lard,' which, in the case of the yew-tree, must be 

 taken to mean the breakage, or cutting, or even 

 the bending, of the leading shoot. Bacon says : 

 ' Nothing procureth the lasting of trees so much 

 as often cutting ; and we see all overgrown trees 



