CHAPTER IV 

 PRUNING OF TREES AND SHRUBS 



THOUGH timely and judicious pruning should 

 never be neglected, yet the annual trimming 

 to which many of the town trees and shrubs 

 are subjected cannot be too strongly de- 

 nounced. To annually prune and elbow in 

 such noble forest trees as the Lime and Plane, 

 in order that the restricted growth may 

 render them suitable for the cramped posi- 

 tions in which they have been unwisely 

 planted, is unreasonable. The Lime and 

 Plane perhaps suffer most in this way, for as 

 soon as they have overgrown the allotted 

 space an annual system of hacking and hew- 

 ing is resorted to, the result being the for- 

 mation of great mop-headed protuberances 

 at the points where amputation took place, 

 which not only rob the tree of its natural 



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