482 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



of leaves and small wood is necessary to every tree ; but all above that quantity are of no 

 use to the plant, and of little value to its owner." (Forest Pruner, 152 and 153.) 



3690. The great importance of the leaves of trees must never be lost sight of : in 

 attending to these instructions their use is not, as Pontey asserts, to attract the sap, but 

 to elaborate it when propelled to them, and thus form the extract or food taken in by the 

 plant, into a fluid analogous to blood, and which is returned so formed by the leaves into 

 the inner bark and soft wood. It must be a very nice point, therefore, to determine the 



^uaptity of branches or leaves that should be left on each tree ; and if no more are left 

 lan what are necessary, then in the case of accidents to them from insects, the progress 

 of the tree will be doubly retarded. Experience alone can determine these things. 

 Both Pontey and Sang agree that " strength is gained as effectually by a few branches 

 to a head as by many." 



3691. The general seasons o/" 7;n/m'ng are winter and spring, and for the gean mid- 

 summer, as it is found to gum very much at any other season. Pontey says, " as to the 

 proper seasons of pruning there is only one difficulty ; and that is, discovering the wrong 

 one, or the particular time that trees will bleed. Only two trees have been found which 

 bleed uniformly at certain seasons, namely, the sycamore, and firs, which bleed as soon as 

 the sap begins to move." 



3692. In spring pruning desist when bleeding takes place. As a general rule, Pontey 

 thinks " summer preferable to winter pruning ; because, in proportion as wounds are made 

 early they heal so much more in the same season." {Forest Pruner, 236.) Sang sus- 

 pends pruning from the end of February to the middle of July, but carries it on during 

 every other month of the year ; pruning the gean, or any other tree very apt to gum, 

 Only in July and August. (Plant. Kal. 268. J 



3693. With respect to the implements to be used. Sang observes, " in every case where 

 the knife is capable of lopping off" the branch in question, namely, in tiie pruning of 

 infant plants, it is the only instrument necessary. All other branches should be taken off' 

 by the saw. A hatchet, or a chisel, should never be used. Every wound on the stem, or 

 bole, should be quite into the quick, that is, to the level and depth of the bark ; nor 

 should the least protuberance be left. The branch to be lopped off" by the saw should, 

 in all cases, be notched or slightly cut on the under side, in order to prevent the bark 

 from being torn in the fall ; and when the branch has been removed, the edges of the 

 wound, if anywise ragged, should be pared smooth with the knife. If the tree be vigorous, 

 nature will soon cover the wound with the bark, without the addition of any plaster to 

 exclude the air. In the shortening of a strong branch, the position of which is pretty 

 upright, it should be observed to draw the saw obliquely across it, in such a manner as 

 that the face of the wound shall be incapable of retaining moisture ; and afterwards to 

 smooth the edges of the bark with a knife." (Plant. Kal. 181.) 



3694. In every case where the branches are too large for the knife, Pontey prefers the saw 

 as the best and most expeditious instrument ; and one, the use of which is more easily 

 acquired by a laborer than that of either the bill or axe. In " large work" he uses the 

 common carpenter's saw ; for smaller branches, one with somewhat finer teeth, with the 

 plate of steel, about twenty inches long. Having stated what is general in prun- 

 ing, the next thing is to submit some particular applications of the art to resinous and 

 non-resinous timber-trees, copse-wood, osier-holts, hedges and hedge-rows, and trees in 

 parks. 



3695. Resinous trees, Pontey and Sang agree, should not be pruned at so early an 

 age as the non-resinous kinds. Sang commences about the sixth or eighth year, accord- 

 ing to their strength or vigor, and removes no more than one or two tiers of branches at 

 once. Pontey, when the plants are about eight feet high, gives the first pruning by 

 " displacing two, or at most three tiers of the lower branches ; after which, intervals of 

 three years might elapse between the prunings, never displacing more than two tiers at 

 once, except more shall prove dead." (Forest Pruner, 204.) Sang judiciously ob- 

 serves, " excessive pruning, eitlier of pines, larches, or deciduous trees of any sort, is 

 highly injurious, not only to the health of the plant, but to the perfection of the wood. 

 If a sufficient number of branches are not left on the young plant to produce abundance 

 of leaves, perfectly to concoct its juice, the timber will be loose in its texture, and liable 

 to premature decay." (Plant. Kal. 182.) The opinions of Nicol and Monteith are at 

 variance with those of Pontey and Sang, as to pruning resinous trees. Nicol advises 

 leaving snags (Pract. Plant. 213.), and Monteith {Forest. Guide, 45.) says, "never 

 cut off" a branch till it has begun to rot, as the bleeding of a live branch will go far to 

 kill the tree." 



3696. Non-resinous trees, Sang observes, *' should be pruned betimes, or rather from 

 their infancy, and thenceforward at intervals of one, or at most two, years. If the. 

 pruning of young forest-frees is performed at intervals of eight or ten years, the growth 

 is unnecessarily thrown away, and wounds are inflicted which will ever after remain 

 blemishes in the timber; whereas, if the superfluous or competing branches had been 



