960 PRACTICE OF GARDENING. Part III. 



the branches are too large for the knife, Pontey prefers the saw, as the best and most ex- 

 peditious instrument ; and one, the use of which is more easily acquired by a laborer 

 than that of either the bill or axe. In "large work" he uses the common carpenter's 

 saw ; for smaller branches, one with somewhat finer teeth, with the plate of steel, and 

 about twenty inches long. Having stated what is general in pruning, the next thing is 

 to submit some particular applications of the art to resinous and non-resinous timber- 

 trees, copse- woods, osier-holts, hedges, and hedge-rows, and trees in parks. 



6892. Resinous trees, Pontey and Sang agree, should not be pruned at so early an age as the non-resin- 

 ous kinds. Sang commences about the sixth or eighth year, according to their strength or vigor, and 

 removes no more than one or two tiers of branches at once. Pontey, when the plants are about eight feet 

 high, gives the first pruning by " displacing two or at most three tiers of the lower branches ; after which, 

 intervals of three years might elapse between the prunings ; never displacing more than two tiers at once, 

 except more shall prove dead." (Forest Primer, 201.) Sang judiciously observes, " Excessive pruning, 

 either of firs, larches, or deciduous trees of any sort, is highly injurious, not only to the health of the 

 plant, but to the perfection of the wood. If a sufficient number of branches are not left on the young 

 plant to produce abundance of leaves, perfectly to concoct its juice, the timber will be loose in its texture, 

 and liable to premature decay." (Plant. Kal. 182.) The opinions of Nicol and Monteath are at variance 

 with those of Pontey and Sang, as to pruning resinous trees. Nicol advises leaving snags (Pract. Plant. 

 213.), and Monteath (For. Guide, 45.) says, " Never cut off a branch till it has begun to rot, as the bleeding 

 of a live branch will go far to kill the tree." 



6893. Non-resinous trees, Sang observes, " should be pruned betimes, or rather from their infancy, and 

 thenceforward at intervals of one or at most two years. If the pruning of young forest-trees is performed 

 only at intervals of eight or ten years, the growth is unnecessarily thrown away, and wounds are inflicted 

 which will ever after remain blemishes in the timber; whereas, if the superfluous, or competing branches 

 had been removed annually, and before they attained a large size, the places from which they issued 

 would be imperceptible, or at least not hurtful to the timber, when it came to the hands of the artist. 

 The pruning of all deciduous trees should be begun at the top, or at least those branches which are to be 

 removed from thence should never be lost sight of. Having fixed upon what may be deemed the best 

 shoot for a leader, or that by which the stem is most evidently to be elongated and enlarged, every other 

 branch on the plant should be rendered subservient to it, either by removing them instantly, or by short- 

 ening them. Where a plant has branched into two or more rival stems, and there are no other very 

 strong branches upon it, nothing more is required, than simply to lop off the weakest clean by the bole, 

 leaving only the strongest and most promising shoots. If three or four shoots or branches be contending 

 for the ascendancy, they should, in like manner, be lopped off, leaving only the most promising. If any 

 of the branches which have been left further down on the bole of the plant at former prunings have 

 become very strong, or have extended their extremities far, they should either be taken clean off by the 

 bole, or be shortened at a proper distance from it ; observing always to shorten at a lateral twig of consi- 

 derable length. It is of importance that the tree be equally poised ; and therefore if it have stronger 

 branches on the one side than the other, they should either be removed or be shortened. Thus, a pro- 

 perly trained tree, under twenty feet in height, should appear light and spiral, from within a yard or two 

 of the ground to the upper extremity ; its stem being furnished with a moderate number of twigs and 

 small branches, in order to detain the sap, and circulate it more equally through the plant. Trees of this 

 size, standing in a close plantation, after being properly formed, will require much less attention ; indeed, 

 subsequent prunings will mostly consist in keeping their leading shoots single. From the want of air, 

 their lateral branches will not be allowed to extend, but will remain as twigs upon the stem. These, 

 however, frequently become dead branches; and if such were allowed to remain at all on the trees, they 

 would infallibly produce blemishes calculated greatly to diminish the value of the timber : hence the im- 

 propriety of allowing any branch to die on the bole of a tree; indeed, all branches should be removed 

 when they are alive ; such a method, to our knowledge, being the only sure one to make good timber. 

 From these circumstances, an annual pruning, or at least an annual examination, of all forests, is neces- 

 sary." (Plant. Kal. 180.) 



6894. Heading doivn such non-resinous trees as stole we have already (6829.) stated to be 

 an important operation. After the trees have been three or four years planted, Sang 

 directs that such as have not begun to grow freely should be headed down to within 

 three or four inches of the ground. The cut must be made with the pruning-knife in a 

 sloping direction, with one effort. Great care should be taken not to bend over the tree 

 in the act of cutting. By so bending, the root may be split, a thing which too often 

 happens. The operation should be performed in March, and not at an earlier period of 

 the season, because the wounded part might receive much injury from the severe weather 

 in January and February, and the expected shoot be thereby prevented from rising so 

 strong and vigorous. [Plant. Kalend. 297.) Buffon, in a memorial on the culture of 

 woods, presented to the French government in 1742, says he has repeated this experi- 

 ment so often, that he considers it as the most useful practice he knows hVthe culture of 

 woods. 



6895. For the purpose of producing bends for ship-timber, various modes of pruning have been proposed. 

 According to Pontey, " little is hazarded by saying, that if plenty of long, clean, straight, free-grown trees 

 could be got, boiling and a screw apparatus would form bends." Monteath, a timber valuator of great 

 experience, and in extensive practice, says, the value of the oak, the broad-leaved elm, and Spanish 

 chestnut, depends a good deal on their being crooked, as they are all used in ship-building. He says he 

 has seen trees successfully trained into crooked shapes of great value, in the following manner : " If you 

 have an oak, an elm, or chestnut, that has two stems, as it were, striving for the superiority, lop or prune 

 off the straightest stem ; and if a tree that is not likely to be of such value be standing on that side, to 

 which the stem left seems to incline to a horizontal position, take away the tree, and thus give the other 

 every chance of growing horizontally. At this time it will be necessary to take away a few of the perpendi- 

 cular shoots off the horizontal branch ; and, indeed, if these branches, which is sometimes the case in these 

 trees, seem to contend, take away most of them ; but if they do not, it is better at this time not to prune 

 these trees over-much, except the crooked shoots on the horizontal branch, till they arrive at the height 

 of fifteen or even twenty feet. By this time it will be easily seen what kind of tree it is likely to form ; 

 and, if it inclines to grow crooked, lighten a little the top of the tree, by taking oft' a few of the crooked 

 branches on the straighter side, allowing all the branches to remain on the side to which the tree inclines 

 to crook, to give it more weight, and to draw most of the sap or juice that way, and it will naturally 

 incline more to the crook ; at the same time clearing away any other tree on the crooked side, that may 

 be apt, with the wind, to whip the side of the tree to which it inclines to crook, also taking away such 

 tree of less value as may prevent it from spreading out to the one side more than to the other." He adds, 



