496 Of Plantations. 



gree, injured by close pruning, because bark and young 

 wood do not grow over the wounds of trees arrived at ma- 

 turity, and the flow of sap does not injure them, as in vi- 

 gorous growing trees. 



Natural pruning has been here stated to be preferable to 

 artificial. But in cases where trees have room to expand 

 their branches, as in woods stocked with underwood, and 

 in hedge rows, they throw out over-luxuriant side branches, 

 and if those are not kept within due bounds, they greatly 

 injure the underwood in one case, and the hedge plants in 

 the rows, and corn in the adjoining fields, in the other. 

 Those trees, therefore, require to be pruned to a certain 

 extent by artificial means. 



When side branches require to be cut from trees when 

 mere saplings, they may be pruned close from their stems, 

 a few at a time, and the wounds soon heal over. But when 

 trees, however young they may be, are entirely stripped of 

 their side branches, at one close pruning operation, they 

 are immediately checked in their growth, greatly injured, 

 and in many instances, totally spoiled. 



The great error in close pruning, has arisen from the dif- 

 ficulty in defining the exact age of the trees, or size of the 

 branches when close pruning should cease, and other me- 

 thods for effecting the same purpose should be resorted to. 

 It is a wise maxim, when doubts arise, to hazard erring on 

 the safe side ; and as close pruning cannot be safely prac- 

 tised upon large trees, it is prudent to discontinue that 

 practice as soon as the plants begin to assume the character of 

 trees. 



The system of pruning trees, called "foreshortening" is 

 admirably adapted to checking the growth of over-luxuriant 

 side branches, without either impairing the health of the 

 trees, or disfiguring them in appearance ; and the beneficial 

 effect of the practice is, that it disposes of the pruned branches 

 in the same manner as in natural pruning, hereafter explain- 

 ed. In the foreshortening process, the over-luxuriant side- 

 branches are cut off immediately above live secondary 

 branches springing from them. When the branch to be 

 shortened is small, it is cut off above the first lateral shoot, 

 or secondary branch. When the branch is of a larger size, 

 it is cut off above the second lateral ; and when larger still, 

 it is cut off above the third ; and so on, always regulating 

 the distance from the stem, by the size of the branch. 



The object of this practice is, to check the current of sap 

 flowing in the strong side branches, and divert it into more 



