1847.] Forest Trees of Massachusetts. 209 



■which the people of Massachusetts know hov; to estimate. It is 

 ilkistiatod by seventeen finely execuiod plates. 



In this work the trees and shrubs are described at length; the 

 limits of the species, the uses of the timber, and its comparative 

 value for fuel. Much interesting matter is introduced under the 

 head of each species, and which imparts a high degree of interest 

 to the general reader. We cannot attempt to go into details, 

 however, in these matters, Avhich are intioduced in a running 

 head, under the description of species; but we propose to make 

 rather iull extracts from an introductory part, where the author 

 has taken up the special treatment of forest trees, under the gene- 

 ral head of thinning and pruning. To proceed at once to the sub- 

 ject, the author remarks: — 



'■'•The principle on which pruning and thinning should be con- 

 ducted, is a very plain and intelligible one. It is, that every tree 

 and every branch should be allowed to have an ample supply of 

 air and light. When, therefore, two trees are so near that their 

 branches extensively intermingle, one should be removed; and, 

 generally, it should be that one which is much taller or shorter 

 than the neighboring trees. 



" In pruning, that brand 

 on other branches of its own or another tree. It should not be 

 cut off close to the stem, as, in that case, the wound will be long 

 in healing, and the root* which supplied the branch, being left 

 useless, will wholly or partly perish, and, by its decay, will infect 

 and weaken the whole tree. It should rather be taken otf at the 

 distance ot a foot or more from the stem, just above a vigorous 

 shoot, w^hich shall be left to grow towards a space in which it 

 will find a plentiful supply of air and light. The shoot thus left 

 will sustain the life of the shortened branch, and will continue in 

 action the root by which it had been nourished.! 



"The mode of thinning and pruning, will be governed in some 

 measure by the end in view. If the object is to produce a lull 

 grown tree, in its true character, developing itself according to 

 its natural tendencies, all or most of the branches will be left, and 

 care be taken to give them space; and, as every branch sw'ells 



* " It is almost universally found, that a large branch corresponds to a 

 large root, and the reverse ; and this is true, whether the root, placed in fa- 

 vorable circumstances, determines the growth of the branch above it, or the 

 branch, propitiously situated, causes the growth of its corresponding root.'" — 

 De Candolle, Organographie Vegctale, Tom. I., p. 1C2. 



t See a " Treatise on the Management and Cultivation of Forest Trees : 

 By John Smith, Gardener and Forester to llie P^arl el' Bute." The chapters 

 on thinning and pruning are interesting, as giving illustrations, by a practical 

 man. of scientific principles which he had learnt only from observation. 



Vol. v., No. 12. 14 



