120 HEDGE-ROW TIMBER. 



If Hedge-row Trees have length of bole, they 

 have it not because they were properly trained 

 and assisted when they were young, and therefore 

 needed it, but in consequence, most likely, of 

 indiscriminate lopping and pruning at some former 

 period of their growth, the fruits of which, although 

 now invisible to the unpracticed eye, will appear 

 hereafter, to the dismay, and serious loss, of the 

 person who may have to saw them up. 



I have elsewhere given my opinion very freely 

 on the subject of pruning, but as it will be neces- 

 sary just to glance at it, in connection with Hedge- 

 row Timber, I will again take the Oak, which is 

 almost the only tree that 1 would recommend for 

 hedges. As this noble tree will naturally grow 

 of a bush-like shape, when standing alone, it is 

 absolutely necessary that it be pruned, or it will 

 not acquire sufficient length of stem. I am not, 

 therefore, the wholesale condemner of pruning, 

 even of Hedge-row Trees, but I would have no 

 pruning done after they had arrived at a certain 

 age say, twenty years : all work of this kind 

 should be done during the infancy of the tree, or 



