90 PRUNING OF FOREST TREES. 



there will be perfect contact, and the timber in the end will be much 

 more valuable than if a rotten cavity was left, instead of a mere line 

 of division between the old and the new, which would be less extensive 

 and much less injurious than the cracks that appear in timber when 

 too rapidly seasoned. It is only in very exceptional cases of construc- 

 tion that a piece of timber would be thrown out as unfit for use because 

 it showed well-healed scars from an old wound.^ 



The most important objection raised against the trimming of ever- 

 greens is their tendency to the exudation of resinous matter, which, in 

 the Scotch fir and larch, will sometimes destroy the tree altogether.^^ 

 The exudation may go on slowly, and seem to be stopped from time to 

 time, according to the season of the year and the activity of the vital 

 process, but it reappears with warm weather, and will continue to resist 

 any application that may be made to prevent it. A mixture of tar and 

 grease, or coal-tar alone, has been sometimes successfully applied, but 

 in other cases nothing can be applied that will thoroughly staunch such 

 a flow when once established. A dead branch may be cut off whenever 

 found, without injury. 



The most eflectual mode of correcting a tendency to ijnsymmetrical 

 or distorted growth of young evergreens in nurseries, is doubtless the 

 "disbudding" or taking out the bud, thus seasonably preventing the 

 irregularities of growth that, if left to themselves, they would occasion. 

 Thus a superfluous leader, or a branch of inordinate growth, may be 

 checked while the plant is still small, and a normal growth maintained. 

 The time of year when this remedy may be applied appears to be of lit- 

 tle consequence, and the fault may be remedied whenever seen ; for it 

 is a rule without an exception, that a tendency to vicious growth early 

 seen and corrected is better than its cure at a later stage, however suc- 

 cessful it may be. 



When young thickets, designed for timber, are thinned out while 

 young, say from ten to fifteen years after sowing or planting, the trunks 

 of the trees left as reserves are often too slender in proportion to their 

 tops. In this case it is recommended that they should be bent over, 

 and the ends of the branches trimmed off, in such a manner that the 

 head may be well balanced and the amount of foliage in some degree 

 proportioned to the size of the stem and roots. When the leader or 

 main central shoot is broken or dead, an adjacent branch may sometimes 

 be bent up and tied to it until it acquires an upright growth, so as finally 



lit should always be borne in mind that the amount of wood-growth in a tree de- 

 pends upon the extent to which the nutritious elements of the soil and air are elabo- 

 rated and prepared by the leaves, and that, in reducing their amount by trimming, to 

 that extent do we lessen the productive forces of the tree, and for the time being re- 

 duce the amount of annual gain for the next and several succeeding years, until a 

 proper balance is secured by a new sujiply of leaves. Experiments have been made 

 by carefully cutting and weighing the trunk and branches of trees in similar condi- 

 tions except as to trimming, and at various intervals afterward, the result showing 

 that the amount of wood-growth was diminished in proportion to the extent of trim- 

 ming done. But in the final result there can be no doubt buc that this temporary loss 

 will, under judicious management, be more than compensated in increased after-growth 

 and in the final value of the timber. 



2 The evergreens differ in their ability to bear pruning according to the abundance 

 of resin that they contain, and in some of the pines and piceas, wounds will bleed a 

 long time after the injury. To the question, " Should we prune the resinous conifers?" 

 Carri^re answers No, if kept for ornament, whether alone or in masses, because in their 

 native condition they are most agreeable to the eye; but Yes, if the value of the tim- 

 ber is an object. He especially condemns the practice of leaving pegs in trimming 

 evergreens, and insists, with good reason, upon the necessity of trimming close to the 

 trunk. — {TraM general dcs Coniferea, p. 616.) 



