Culture of Timber Trees, 509 



exhibit, from every point of view, such a reticulated mass of irre- 

 gularity and confusion, as must ever be intolerable to those who 

 have witnessed them in the opposite condition. 



As single specimens in pleasure-grounds or in park scenery, 

 nature may be allowed to frolic sometimes absolutely unre- 

 strained ; but in forest plantations, where timber or remuneration 

 is the desired aim, art must be called in. My intention at 

 present is merely to give a few hints on a method I never saw 

 yet fully carried out in this country, but which is successfully 

 practised in Belgium, The public roads of that country, except 

 the railroads which are of recent construction, have always been 

 much admired by foreign travellers for their beautiful appear- 

 ance, there being generally a row of trees on each side. 



The trees, whether oak, ash, elm, poplar, or others, are taken 

 from the nursery when they are 15 ft. or more in height, and 

 about the thickness of a man's arm ; the lateral branches are 

 all cut off at from 3 in. to 6 in. from the stem, and of course 

 close above a bud : if the lower ones have not been previ- 

 ously cut clean off for from 5 ft. to 7 ft. from the roots, they 

 are cut off now; the top is also cut off in a slanting direction, 

 at about 10 ft. from the roots. The trees are taken up in March 

 and April, without balls of earth ; and not remarkably carefully, 

 but precisely after the ordinary manner practised in our nur- 

 series, and they are planted in holes about 3 or 4 feet square, 

 The first year they grow but little ; the second year they may be 

 said to commence their growth, when the uppermost shoot is 

 trained for the leader. As the tree progresses, it is pruned 

 every year, if necessary, in winter or early in spring, cutting 

 out all the cross and unequal branches, and thinning those that 

 are or may become crowded. At first, the upper part of the 

 tree is got at by means of a step-ladder ; but as soon as it be- 

 comes stout enough, the pruner ascends by the assistance of a 

 cord and climbing spurs. These spurs are fastened on by means 

 of leather straps, which pass round the leg, and are attached to 

 an iron rod reaching from the stirrup of the spur, up the outside 

 of the leg, to near the knee. Securing the hatchet in a belt 

 round his waist, and passing the cord round the stem, the pruner 

 climbs the loftiest trees with apparently the greatest ease, and 

 cuts out all crooked and useless branches, which are pointed out 

 by the foreman or superintendant, who stands on the ground 

 below. The climbing appears to do no serious injury to 

 the trees, the laceration in the bark being small, and almost 

 immediately healing over. 



It is astonishing how well the leading shoots of the decapitated 

 trees blend with the older stem. I believe there would be found 

 some difficulty in making any one, who was ignorant of the fact, 

 believe that the beautiful straight-stemmed trees along the road 

 sides, boulevards, Sec, in that country, had their tops cut off when 



