226 PRUNING. 



often is, for it is often produced at by far too great 

 a cost. Indeed the most proper way of securing a 

 clean stem is accomplished by thinning rather than 

 by pruning ; and even with the aid of both thinning 

 and pruning, it will not always succeed without a 

 sheltered situation. Handsome trees and clean stems 

 are only attainable to the full extent where soil and 

 situation combine to favour them. Pruning, however, 

 has often an important part to perform in the work, 

 which is principally done by checking the lateral 

 growth of the branches so as to induce them to decay, 

 and when decayed, to prune them off close to the 

 stem, dress and paint the wounds, and leave them to 

 nature to restore. 



It should never be attempted by pruning to make 

 all trees in a plantation grow with a clean and 

 straight stem, for that is neither practical nor desir- 

 able. Trees of every kind and description are required 

 in the works of industry and art ; and while for one 

 purpose a straight clean trunk is required, for another 

 a bent or crooked one is sought after. 



Therefore in true forestry every tree should be 

 guided in that direction which nature designed it to 

 grow in, rather than strive to subvert nature from her 

 own course. 



Trees grown on the margins of plantations, in hedge- 

 rows, by the sides of roads and carriage -drives, &c., 

 almost invariably require their branches so pruned as 

 to keep them within due limits. This form of prun- 

 ing, as may well be understood, is not done with the 

 view to benefit the trees themselves, but simply to 

 confine them within a given area. The two most im- 

 portant considerations connected with this department 

 of pruning are cutting the branches so that the cut 



