ANCIENT WOODS. 41 



is to bring it to maturity as soon as possible, and 

 one means which he possesses, if he will make use 

 of it, is pruning ; which he should commence, 

 after one year's growth, and occasionally repeat 

 say on the fourth and sixth years, allowing the 

 intervals to pass without interfering with it. If 

 this operation be performed as it ought to be, the 

 stools will have a number of poles proportioned to 

 their size and capacity of supporting them, and 

 the poles themselves will not only be more of an 

 uniform size, but they will be much straighter, and 

 on every account better adapted to the use for 

 which they may be intended. But if a wood be 

 stocked with nothing but rubbish, such as hazel, 

 birch, alder, &c. it will not be worth pruning, and 

 the best course to take with it, would be to stub it 

 up, and get rid of it altogether. 



Finally, on this point, and more particularly 

 with reference to timber, if the pruning be judi- 

 ciously done, it will tend greatly to improve the 

 health of the wood, but the indiscriminate use of 

 the pruning knife might do much harm, it should, 

 therefore, only be done under the most careful 

 direction. 



