131 



malei'ially promoted by llie laferal branches.* IJut, should 

 they exceed the due number, rc(juisite for those important 

 purposes, retaining too nuich of the sap which tlicy pre- 

 pare, and aflfording too scanty a supply to the stem, they 

 may, in ordinary cases, be considered as robbers, and should 

 be curtailed by pruning, within proper limits. 



In this view, it will be perceived that judicious pruning is 

 a work of far greater nicety and difficulty than is generally 

 believed, and that it should not be permitted, unless under 

 the superintendence of some scientific person. It is true, it 

 has been shown by the ingenious Mr. Pontey, that severe 

 pruning will, in some cases, augment the actual weight of 

 the stem, and therefore, as he speciously argues, the value of 

 the tree. But great doubts may be entertained, whether this 

 writer, meritorious as he is, may not have proceeded on erro- 

 neous principles in his theory ; and that his practice in prun- 

 ing has been carried to a height, sanctioned by neither 

 science nor experience.t 



Branches, besides giving to trees both beauty and nourish- 

 ment, serve to balance them properly, and by throwing them- 

 selves out on every side, aid the trees in withstanding the 

 wind, in whichever way it may blow. Most trees, if not pre- 

 vented by adverse circumstances, have at first a leading 

 shoot, which tends perpendicularly upwards, and is invested 

 with a preeminence over the other branches. Having reached 

 the height, which the soil and situation admit, the central 

 shoot loses its preeminence. The sap, required to give it su- 

 perior vigour, seems then to fail, and it gradually disappears 

 among the other shoots. Meanwhile, the plastic powers of 

 the trees soon multiply the branches of the top, which last 

 gradually obtains a rounded form, and becomes what the 



* Knight on the Sap of Trees, Philosoph. Trans. 1803, 1804. Mirbel, 

 Anat. et Phys. Veget. Art. 6. 

 t Note V. A i»'- 



* 





