Growth and Form Development 



13 



economy. If this were not so, if all the buds formed and all 

 the branches developed in mathematical order, very different 

 forms from those with which we are acquainted would result. 



This observation of the natural pruning of buds and twigs 

 — withdrawal of water and light killing them and wind storms 

 breaking them off — which takes place annually, especially 

 as the trees grow older, is important in taking care of trees. 

 It teaches that not all dying or dead branchlets, which we 

 find on the normally developed tree, indicate any disease 

 or abnormal condition. It teaches that pruning is not an 

 unnatural but a necessary operation which, if neglected 

 and not systematically directed by man, will be done by 

 nature in a haphazard manner without ref- 

 erence to the wishes of man as to form. 

 We learn from this that with the expanding 

 crown some parts, the less favorably lighted 

 ones, as for instance the interior or the lowest 

 portions in a conifer, must eventually be lost, 

 and, if we remove them in time, we have it 

 in our power to direct the development of 

 the tree in form, favoring in the competition 

 those parts, which we desire to preserve or 

 develop. 



Another fact in the development of the 

 crown, which from different points of view 

 interests the forester perhaps more than the 

 tree-warden is, that every regularly formed 

 branch or limb has its origin, its base, in the Fig. 5— Diagram 



showing the con- 

 very center of the trunk or branch from nection of all 



which it arises, its pith or central portion JSe"phh' ^'^^ 



being in direct connection with the pith of 



the bole or mother branch. The growth of wood which 



takes place annually on the bole or mother branch envelops 



