Book II. 



PRUNING TREES. 



581 



with safety at an earlier period than under the foregoing circumstances ; because the 

 trees, in the present case, have greater encouragement to grow vigorously after planting, 

 and may be more easily ascertained to be entirely dead, than where the natural herbage 

 is allowed to grow among them. 



3685. But the ^filling up of larches and pines may take place the first spring after the 

 plantation has been made ; because such of these trees as have died are more easily 

 distinguished. In many cases where a larch or pine loses its top, either by dying down, or 

 the biting of hares or rabbits, the most vigorous lateral branch is elected by nature to 

 supply the 'deficiency, which by degrees assumes the character of an original top. Pines, 

 and larches, therefore, which have fresh lateral branches, are not to be displaced, although 

 they have lost their tops. Indeed no tree in the forest, or other plantation, ought to be 

 removed until there be no hope for its recovery. 



3686. If the Jilling up of plantations be left undone till the trees have risen tojifteen or 

 twenty feet in height, their roots are spread far abroad, and their tops occupy a con- 

 sidera!)le space. The introduction of two or three plants, from a foot to three feet in 

 height, at a particular deficient place, can never, in the above circumstances, be attended 

 witii any advantage. Such plants may, indeecj, become bushes, and may answer well 

 enough in the character of underwood, but they will for ever remain unfit for any other 

 purpose. It is highly improper then, to commence filling up of hard- wood plantations, 

 l)efore the third year after planting ; or to protract it beyond the fifth or the sixth. March 

 is tlie proper season for this operation. (Plant. Jfal. 295.) 



SuBSECT. 3. Of Pruning and Heading Down Trees in Plantations. 



3687. Pruning is the most important operation of tree culture, since on it, in almost 

 eyery case, depends the ultimate value, and in most cases, the actual bulk of timber pro- 

 duced. In the purposes of pruning, as for most other practicable purposes, the division 

 of trees into resinous or frondose-branched trees, and into non-resinous or branchy- 

 headed sorts is of use. The main object in pruning frondose-branched trees, is to pro- 

 duce a trunk with clean bark and sound timber; that in pruning branchy-stemmed trees, 

 is principally to direct the ligneous matter of the tree into the main stem or trunk, and 

 also to produce a clean stem and sound timber, as in the other case. The branches of 

 frondose trees, unless in extraordinary cases, never acquire a timber size, but rot off 

 from the bottom upwards, as the tree advances in height and age ; and, therefore, whe- 

 ther pruned or not, the quantity of timber in the form of trunk is the same. The 

 branches of the other division of trees, however, when left to spread out on every side, 

 often acquire a timber-like size ; and as the ligneous matter they contain is in general far 

 from being so valuable as when produced in the form of a straight stem, the loss by not 

 pruning off their side branches or preventing them from acquiring a timber-like size is 

 evident. On the other hand, when they are broken off by accident, or rot off by being 

 crowded together, the timber of the trunk, though in these cases increased in quantity, is 

 rendered knotty and rotten in quality. 



3688. With respect to the manner of pruning. Sang observes, *' where straight tim- 

 ber is the object, both classes in their infancy should be feathered from the bottom 

 upwards, keeping the tops light and spiral, sometliing resembling a young larch {fig. 

 457 a). The proportion of their tops should 

 be gradually diminished, year by year, till 

 about their twentieth year, when they should 

 occupy about a third part of the height of 

 the plant ; that is, if the tree be thirty feet 

 high, the top should be ten feet (b). In all 

 cases in pruning off the branches, the utmost 

 care must be taken not to leave any stumps 

 sticking out, but cut them into the quick. 

 It is only by this means that clean timber 

 can be procured for the joiner ; or slightly 

 stemmed trees to please the eye. It is a 

 very general practice to leave snags or 

 stumps (c) ; before the bole can be enlarged 

 suflSciently to cover these, many years must 

 elapse ; the stumps in the meantime become 

 rotten ; and the consequence is, timber which 

 when sawn up (ri), is only fit for fuel." 



3689. Pontey justly observes, " that the 

 sap of a tree may be considered as the raw ma- 

 terial furnished by nature ; and man, the ma- 

 nufacturer who moulds it into the form most useful for his purpose. 



Pp 3 



A moderate quantity 



