40 ANCIENT WOODS. 



perish. A small outlay in draining, if judiciously 

 expended, would, in most cases, prevent these 

 effects, and as it would only require to be done 

 once in fifteen or twenty years, it could not lay 

 more than a trifling charge upon the land. 



Pruning is also a very necessary operation in 

 Ancient Woods, both of the oak and of the under- 

 wood. I shall not here enter upon an inquiry into 

 the general question ofpru?iing, hut, continuing to 

 treat my subject practically, venture to remark, 

 that, as our woods are now circumstanced, prun- 

 ing, of some kind or other, is, as far as the oak is 

 concerned, quite indispensable. Whether it should 

 be by fore-shortening, close pruning, or some other 

 method, must be determined upon an examination 

 taken, but I do not hesitate to express my belief, 

 that the pruning of oak trees in woods, may be 

 almost wholly dispensed with, after the few first 

 years, if they are well trained from the beginning ; 

 but that being the case with very few, pruning 

 must be resorted to. And as to the underwood, 

 the question has still less difficulty in it. When 

 a wood is well stocked with underwood of the right 

 sort, the object to be aimed at by the woodman 



