156 Practical Forestry 



within due bounds, a systematic clipping and pruning has 

 to be resorted to. 



Pruning Dead Wood. Opinions differ greatly as to 

 whether or not dead branches should be removed from park 

 and woodland trees. It is, however, mainly a matter of 

 taste, and a point on which two of the largest owners of 

 woodlands in this country hold distinctly opposite opinions, 

 though at the same time it cannot be denied that the careful 

 removal of all dead and dying wood from a tree is highly 

 beneficial. Pruning should, however, only be extended to 

 such trees as are in a fairly healthy condition, with well- 

 developed heads, and containing only a moderate quantity 

 of dead wood, there being many fine old specimens that 

 would be rendered unsightly in the extreme and receive no 

 benefit from removal of the dead and dying timber, but this 

 has direct reference to trees standing singly throughout the 

 park, and not to specimens in the woodland. 



In many of our parks and woodlands at the present time 

 there exists an undue quantity of dead and dying wood, 

 which may be attributed to natural decay, the quality of 

 the soil, and in some instances to long-standing neglect in 

 the matter of non-attention to wounds which have been 

 caused by wind-broken limbs and branches. Such trees 

 would be greatly improved, both in health and appearance, 

 by judicious removal of the dead branches and attention 

 to old wounds in order to prevent the ingress of water, the 

 decay of many branches being directly attributable to this 

 cause. That an undue quantity of dead wood will induce 

 injurious insect pests, such as the goat and wood leopard 

 moths, which attack healthy trees, is well known, and was 

 exemplified in one of our London parks recently where 

 numerous young thorns and various species of Pyrus were 

 injured by the latter. In removing dead branches cut 

 them well back into the living wood in order to induce fresh 

 growth at the point where amputation takes place. 

 The removal of large dead limbs from old specimen trees 

 is an operation that requires a great amount of skill, and 

 should only be entrusted to those who havejiad practical 

 experience of pruning in its various phases. As before 



