38 TREE PRUNING. 



CHAPTER IV. 



METHOD OF PRUNING RESERVE TREES OF DIFFERENT 

 AGES. 



Young Trees, Were it practicable to train young 

 forest trees from their early years in the manner 

 adopted in nurseries to form ornamental specimens, 

 they might, no doubt, be greatly improved, but in 

 planting on a large scale this is of course impossible, 

 and it will be assumed that the young trees destined 

 to serve as reserves have been entirely neglected up to 

 the time of the first cutting over of the plantation. 



Where it is the custom to cut over coppice once in 

 every ten or fifteen years, the young reserve trees are 

 often weak and without a proper proportion of lower 

 branches ; and thus liable to break down under the 

 too great weight of their tops. If the young trees 

 are too weak to support a ladder, they must be bent 

 down by the hand or by a forked stick, and the 

 weight of the head reduced. 



The stem in the case of young trees should, if pos- 

 sible, be furnished with branches for two thirds 

 of its length ; and if the leader is dead, or out of 



