112 FIGURE OF STANDARD TREES. 



wind, not so much by its frequency, compared with 

 the east, as by its greater force, gives uniformly an 

 eastward inclination to the heads of trees; but this 

 also may be corrected by a due attention to the use 

 of the knife. Begin by cutting off, on the west 

 side, such branches as slope away from the wind, 

 and lean towards the heart of the tree; leave those 

 lateral shoots which point westward to take lead in 

 the subsequent growth, and let the temporary loss 

 of wood which you thus occasion on the one side be 

 balanced by an equal reduction on the other. Thus 

 the branch on the most exposed side is made to 

 point to the wind like an arrow, and is able to 

 maintain its position, as it suffers the pressure only 

 on its extremity; whereas one that is more elevated 

 presents its side to the wind, and, like a flagstaff, 

 sustains the pressure over its whole length, till 

 bending away in an opposite direction, it finds re- 

 lief by presenting its lower extremity to the power 

 that assails it. 



Let it not be supposed that all this care in pro- 

 moting an equal distribution of the tree is merely 

 to please the eye, or that the production of round 

 tops is the best calculated for that entertainment; 

 on the contrary, I would judge that tree by much 

 the handsomest that has the most decided bearing 

 against the worst wind; and certainly nothing can 

 be more unsightly than a tree so affected by the 

 sweep of the blast as to resemble a besom that has 

 been used to sweep only on one side. But there is 

 here a greater object than the pleasure of the eye. 



