78 ORCHARDS. 



them alone : every leaf we pluck off injures the trees. 

 The several species of pine and evergreens are ruined 

 by using the axe and the saw. The pitch — the life- 

 blood of the trees — flows out at the wound, and we 

 at the same time deprive the tree of a portion of its 

 lungs. It may still live, as animals have done, many 

 years after losing one of the lobes of the lungs by de- 

 cay ; but the bare existence of the tree is not enough : 

 we wish it as much top as it will bear, that it may 

 draw on the earth and on the air for all the nourish- 

 ment they can afford. Further, — by trimming young 

 forests we open them to the winds ; the leaves blow 

 away instead of turning to manure and keeping the 

 soil light ; the grass-roots occupy the space intended 

 for the roots of the tree, and you are a greater loser 

 than he who puts his rum all into a sieve. You lose 

 the sap, the leaves, the room for your roots, and the 

 powers of the tree to extend its growth. But we will 

 not be forced by theory to the contrary extreme, and 

 shall not recommend to let fruit-trees wholly alone. 

 We think nature has provided them with some excess 

 of leaves and of branches, to meet the demand of the 

 worms and of the insects that are constantly preying 

 upon them. The storms, also, come in for a share of 

 the spoil. Now if we destroy these worms and insects, 

 and the storms have used no violence, a surplus of 

 limbs and of leaves remain for the knife, and we may 

 then, with impunity, trim the small tioigs as we cut 

 off our hair, our beards, and our nails. This excess, 

 which nature has supplied for extra occasions, may be 

 safely lopped away ; the wounds will soon be healed 

 in either case ; but take from an animal his hand, his 

 leg, or his finger, and, though he may yet live, you in 

 part deprive him of his vigor. 



Let apple-trees, then, have height as well as breadth. 

 Suffer not their limbs to run low. If beside the high- 

 way, the cattle will trim too much ; if in the field, 

 they stop your plough, that must not be a stranger 



