DIFFERENT METHODS OF PRUNING. 47 



and followed the practice of severe close pruning that have led some 

 writers to speak currently against the practice of any pruning what- 

 ever. But the bad effects must he charged against a faulty 

 method, and not against every system of pruning. There are 

 several disadvantages that follow the entire absence of pruning, 

 and some think, that in the case of rearing hardwood trees with 

 nurses, these disadvantages can be obviated by proper atten- 

 tion to thinning. But in our opinion it is impracticable to rear 

 a crop of hardwood trees as judiciously and profitably by merely 

 thinning, as when attention is paid to check rival leaders and 

 strong side branches. Delaying the removal of any one of the 

 nurses may cause the decay of a number of the side branches, but it 

 cannot arrest the progress of a contending leader; on the contrary, it 

 tends to encourage it. "When thinning is unduly delayed, the nurses 

 have a tendency to force the side branches to grow upwards; and 

 thus ill-placed limbs and double tops are formed. And it also makes 

 a bare, slender stem, by causing the branches to decay and fall off, 

 generally leaving a piece of decayed stump on the trunk of the tree. 

 Nature at once of herself endeavours to remove these, and unaided 

 she will effect it, but not certainly without causing a greater defect 

 in the timber than sawing off the stumps would do. Nature carries 

 on the amputation and healing-over process at the same time; and 

 the new collapsing sapwood, in endeavouring to accomplish this, 

 encloses a portion of the decayed branch. Thus a protuberance is 

 produced, and the piece of decayed branch that is enclosed will, 

 beyond all question, cause a flaw in the timber. 



Recently the following example came under our notice: — Two 

 plantations, consisting chiefly of ash and elm, were thinned at one time. 

 Though on different estates, these plantations were adjacent to each 

 other, and the age, soil, situation of both were alike; but the method 

 of rearing had been very different. No. 1 had been occasionally pruned 

 and regularly thinned, and the " root-cuts" of the trees that were taken 

 from it at this time sold readily at Is. 6cl. per foot in the plantation. 

 No. 2 plantation had been utterly neglected in pruning, and the 

 thinning had not been timeously performed, and the root-cuts of the 

 trees sold with difficulty, after being carted to the road, at Is. Id. per 

 foot. " The tops " or second quality of timber in both plantations 

 were sold to the same wood merchant at 1 2s. per ton delivered. He 

 cut them into barrel staves, and kept the produce of each plantation 

 separate. At the time of sawing, No. 1 plantation produced more 

 staves per ton of rough timber than No. 2 did. After the staves 



