PRUNING AND THINNING. 149 



SECTION VIII. 



On Pruning. 



No part of the culture of timber is more 

 important than that of Pruning. That we 

 may be enabled to follow the subject clearly, 

 and bestow due attention on valuable indivi^ 

 duals, let us proceed with, 



1st. THE OAK. And, as already hinted, 

 planted Oaks generally require to be headed 

 down about the second or third year after 

 planting. I say generally, for who in mad- 

 ness would head down a plant, evidently 

 thriving, and forming for a timber tree ? In 

 speaking of heading down, I allude to bushes, 

 or plants so distorted in the stem, that they 

 will not, if left to nature, hastily acquire an 

 upright tendency, and consequently might 

 disappoint our best wishes of seeing them 

 speedily shoot forth for timber of magni- 

 tude. 



Therefore, to remedy this defect, the third 

 season after planting, by which time the 

 plants will have made good roots, and be 



