232 ON PRUNING TIMBER TREES. 



main trunk rising erect, surrounded from the summit to the base 

 by smaller horizontal branches. But other trees, and these may 

 be said to comprehend the greater part of the hard wood, do not 

 rise with the same regularity. Instead of one leading upright 

 trunk, they send out many large boughs, which rival in size the 

 principal trunk : such trees become forked near the baze, and 

 the principal trunk below is short, while the top is largely 

 branched. 



Now this is a form of a tree which, however conducive to 

 beauty, is not so to utility. The main object for cultivating wood 

 is for the timber, and the greater part of the useful timber of 

 trees is contained in the trunk before it begins to shoot out into 

 boughs. In the artificial cultivation of wood, therefore, it is im- 

 portant to produce as great a length of trunk, in proportion to 

 the branched top, as a due attention to the natural habits of the 

 tree will allow. 



Further, it is important for the obtaining of useful timber for 

 the purposes of the carpenter, that the trunk shall be what is 

 termed clean for as great a space upwards as possible. To un- 

 derstand the meaning of this term, when a branch shoots out 

 from the side of a trunk of a tree, a part of the vegetable circula- 

 tion is carried on through that branch ; and hence there is at 

 this place an interruption of the continuity of the circulation 

 and thus alters its course. The fibres of the branch lie in a 

 different direction from these of the main stem, and this, when 

 carried to a certain extent, is injurious to the texture of the wood. 

 These twisted fibres frequently constitute as it were a distinct 

 mass of wood within the the body of the trunk, They often form 

 what are called knots, which greatly take from the usefulness of 

 the timber for the purposes of carpentry. 



For these reasons, it is important that as great a part of the 

 lower trunk as possible, be freed from the lateral shoots. 



Nature in part performs this process. As the tree rises in 

 height, the lower branches decay and fall off, so that there arc 

 few trees in which, even if left to themselves, there will not be 

 a certain portion of the lower stems, cleared of lateral branches, 

 When trees are close together, this natural falling off of the lower 

 branches takes place more quickly, and to a greater extent, than 

 when they are distant from each other. 



{To be continued.) 



