354 



fore many branches may be taken away, is to say in effect, that strength 

 is not diminished, by diminishing the means of obtaining it ; a contra- 

 diction in terms, wholly unworthy of any serious refutation. 



Perhaps there is no author of the present time, who has written more 

 judiciously on the effects produced on wood by means of culture, of 

 which pruning necessarily forms an important part, than the ingenious 

 author of the Encyclopedia of Gardening : and I feel the more particu- 

 lar satisfaction in appealing to him in this place, as I have above had 

 occasion to differ from him, on another point respecting wood. 



" It is remarkable," he observes, " that this subject has never spe- 

 cifically engaged the attention of those, who have written on planting. 

 The effects of culture on other vegetables is so great, as always to 

 change their appearance, and often in a considerable degree to alter their 

 nature. The common culinary vegetables, and cultivated grasses 

 assume so different an appearance in our fields and gardens, from what 

 they do in a state of wild nature, that oven a botanist might easily be 

 deceived, in regard to the species. The same general laws operate 

 upon the whole kingdom of vegetables ; and thence it is plain, that the 

 effects of culture on trees, though different in degree, must be analogous 

 in their nature. * * 



" The general effects of pruning I have already stated to be of a cor- 

 responding nature with those of culture, that is, to increase the quantity 

 of timber produce. The particular manner, in which it does this, is by 

 directing the greater part of the sap, which generally spreads itself in 

 side-branches, into the principal stem. This must consequently enlarge 

 that stem, in a more than ordinary degree, by increasing the annual 

 circles of the wood. Now, if the tree be in a worse soil and climate, 

 than those which are natural to it, this will be of some advantage, as 

 the extra increase of timber will still be of a quality not inferior io 

 what would take place in its natural state ; or, in other words, it will 

 correspond with that degree of quality and quantity of timber, which 

 the nature and species of the tree admit of being produced. If the tree 

 be in its natural state, the annual increase of timber, occasioned by prun- 

 ing, must necessarily injure its qualUy, in a degree corresponding with 

 the increased quantity. If the tree be in a better climate and soil, than 

 that which is natural to it, and at the same time, the annual increase of 

 wood be promoted by pruning, it is evident, that such wood must be of 

 a very different quality from that produced in its natural state (that is, 

 very inferior). 



" Now, though it might be shown in some degree, from vegetable 

 anatomy, and analogy from what takes place in herbaceoHS vegetables, 



