248 PRUNING. 



importance ignored, while upon others it is carried on 

 to an injurious and hurtful extent. 



Upon some estates the system pursued is a wrong 

 one ; and upon others, while the system is right, the 

 execution of the work is so rude and barbarous that 

 any one seeing it is justified in wishing the work had 

 never been done at all. That which leads to wrong- 

 doing generally is wrong thinking, and if a word can 

 be said in such a way as to turn the current of 

 thought, the hand that might perpetrate mischief may 

 be thereby arrested. 



One common impression in regard to pruning is, 

 that when an important limb or branch is cut off from 

 the bole of the tree, the sap which was wont to flow 

 into it, to nourish and sustain it, will, on its being cut 

 off, find its way into the stem or bole of the tree, and 

 thereby nourish and enlarge it to the full extent that 

 it did the member cut off. That this is a wrong im- 

 pression can be easily shown, and also that the antici- 

 pated benefits resulting from such pruning are never 

 realised. 



If it be asked how it is ascertained that the sap 

 which formerly sustained the amputated limb does not 

 find its way into the trunk, and add nourishment to it 

 proportionately (or to an appreciable extent) to what 

 it did to the limb, the answer is, by experience and 

 observation, such as any one may avail himself of at 

 pleasure. I have several sections of wood before me, 

 taken from trees previously pruned, all of which show 

 that the sap- vessels of the stem or limbs adjacent to 

 that cut off do not enlarge or increase in strength 

 subsequent to the operation. In most of the sections 

 I observe a diminution of growth rather than an in- 

 crease, such as is produced upon a neighbouring tree 



