38 TIMBER AND TIMBER TREES. [CHAP. 



be attended with some danger, and should not, I con- 

 sider, be done if it can be avoided. The safer plan 

 with trees of moderate growth is to let a part of the 

 branch remain ; say a foot or two in length, taking care 

 at the same time not to leave it rugged at the end. 



It should be neither cut horizontally nor square to 

 the branch, but perpendicularly, or in the direction most 

 certain to prevent water lying on the surface (Fig. 14). 



A tree is occasionally wounded and damaged by a 

 blow. It may have been struck by the fall of another 

 contiguous to it, or in some other way ; but such bruises 



often penetrate 

 no farther than 

 the bark, and 

 simply leave 

 evidence of it 

 later on, in what 

 is technically 

 termed " rind- 

 gall" (Fig. 15). 

 This is a defect, 

 inasmuch as the 

 concentric layers 



at this part are not solidified upon each other ; but 

 there is usually no decay of the fibre. If, however^ 

 the injury be more severe, and the alburnum and 

 duramen are contused, the wounded part no longer 

 resists, but largely absorbs moisture, which tends directly 

 to decompose it, and, decay having once set in, a species 

 of rot soon supervenes, to the detriment of the tree. 

 This is often difficult to discover while the tree is stand- 

 ing, as, unless the blow is of quite recent date, the bark 

 will have grown over it again, and effaced every trace of 

 the wound. 



