Pollards: Control of Shapes in the Growth. 61 



trees hollow and unsightly objects, hut in some cases it is not with- 

 out advantages. Along the Rio Grande Valley, in New Mexico, it 



41. Improper Mode of 

 (.'luting 1'olliird.s. 



42, :;. 1'roper Modes of 



I'ollards. 



has long been the practice to thus cut hark the tops of cottonwoods 

 in "rder to obtain fuel. 



227. A great advantage is gained in some cases by fore-shortening 

 the branches by trimming off their ends, so as to give the top a more 

 symmetrical form, and a den>er growth. This practice has hern 

 very fully described, and its advantages shown by the Count Des 

 Cars, in France', and previously by the Viscount de Coiirval. When 

 applied to the oak, it has s uiietinies led to remarkable >uccess in 

 growth, and in ornamental planting it may be sometimes applied to 

 great advantage. 1 



22S. In Italy the olive is thus cut back to secure a more vigorous 

 growth of the voting wood, and the trunk often becomes hollow, but 

 it will survive the injuries for a long time. The marbled and 

 gnarled appearance of the grain of this wood, as often seen in orna- 

 mental work, is chielly from this cause. The knotted heads of pol- 

 lard poplar trunks are sometimes cut into 

 thin plates for fancy work, and produce a 

 beautiful effect. 



221). An upright growth may be secured 

 by lopping off the side branches, and bend- 

 ing the more promising ones upright, secur- 

 ing by a pole lashed to the tree, or driven 

 into the ground, and sometimes by binding 

 one branch around another, as shown in the 

 adjacent cuts. 



1 Ful* accounts of tin's method and its results muy be found in our first Re- 

 port upon Forestry (1877), pp. 92, 93, 98. 



44. Modes of securing an 

 Upright Growth. 



