GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



13 



practice even among persons interested in the preser- 

 vation of trees (Fig. 8). 



Fig. 7. Longitudinal section of the trunk of an 

 Oak cut twenty years after pruning. A. A medium- 

 sized branch badly amputated. B. A large branch 

 properly amputated 



These stumps, deprived of communication with the 

 leaves, die, the bark falls off, while the stumps them- 

 selves remain like plugs of 

 decaying wood driven into 

 the trunk (Fig. 9> 



In a few years the stumps 

 rot (Fig. 10), and decay 

 penetrates to the heart of 

 the tree. Fig. 11 shows the 

 fatal results of this method 

 of pruning. 



The method of pruning 

 deciduous forest trees, and especially the Oak, will be 

 first considered in this treatise. The Oak is selected 

 as the most valuable of our timber trees, and because 

 unfortunate and deeply rooted prejudices exist in 



Fig. 8. Stump of a branch left 

 in pruning. 



