204 Studies in Forestry [CHAP. ix. 



as a rule, no clearance of branches in order to improve the 

 shape of the bole. The cutting and the lopping of branches 

 are both merely measures adopted, often at considerable outlay, 

 to cover the effects of faulty treatment of the crop during the 

 past, and are, in general, not requisite where trees have gradually 

 been accustomed to a fuller measure of individual growing- 

 space. In the case of copse or standards over coppice some 

 diminution in the amount of shade cast may be necessary for 

 the well-being of the underwood; and, within certain limits, 

 this can be effected by thinning the crowns of the standard 

 trees forming the overwood. 



Under ordinary circumstances, the removal of living branches 

 can only take place to a limited degree, and must in any case 

 (for financial reasons) be confined to the more valuable species 

 of trees. The manner in which the crown is set on the tree is 

 of well-known influence in determining the shape of the bole, 

 as stems with lofty crowns are more full-wooded at the top-end, 

 and approximate more to the cylinder in shape, than such as 

 have deep-seated crowns of foliage. In order that any benefit 

 may be derived from the operation, it is necessary that pruning 

 should be carried out when the trees are in their full energy 

 of growth, and as early as possible before the period fixed for 

 their mature fall. 



In many cases, too, where the crowns of the trees are very 

 dense, a fillip may be given to their general energy in growth 

 by thinning out some of the branches, so that the foliage re- 

 maining may have a larger share of the nutrients extracted 

 by the root-system from the soil. The stimulation thus given 

 to the energy of assimilation is perhaps nowhere more notice- 

 able than with regard to young Larch trees, the lower portions 

 of whose foliage may have already been attacked by the Larch 

 mining-moth (Coleophora laricelld). 



The removal of dead branches, when carefully conducted, 

 so as to leave no ragged surface likely to offer a favourable 

 germinating-bed to fungoid spores, interferes in no way with 



