14 



tree wilPde velop a mis-shapen bole, which will probably 

 be split cbwn the middle by the first gale. Sparsely 

 planted and isolated tress require to be carefully pruned, 

 often at considerable expense. In removing side branches, 

 they should be taken off Jevel with the trunk, a pruning 

 saw being used first and a sharp knife afterwards, 

 small branches are most expeditiously removed by one 

 clean cut, with any of the patent lever pruners such as 

 that sold under the name of " Myticuttah." It is very bad 

 to leave snags. In trees, such as Oaks, which are liable to 

 hollo wness in the trunk or in other trees whenever a large 

 branch is taken off, the cut surface should be painted over 

 with coal tar. 



In tree-pruning this must be remembered. The trunk 

 of a tree once formed increases every year in girth but 

 never grows any higher. A sapling with the crown at 6 

 feet above the ground will never have a trunk longer than 

 6 feet unless the lower branches are destroyed or pruned off. 

 In this case the sooner these lower branches are removed 

 the less the shock to the tree. When the removal of a big 

 branch caunot be avoided it is a good plan to shorten it 

 considerably first, and take it off a year or two years after- 

 wards. Caution and care are necessary in pruning. It should 

 always be remembered that every leaf removed is, for the 

 time being, so much growth lost. 



Trees that are intended to re-shoot, as in the case of a 

 Blue-gum copse, should be always cut as low as possible, i.e., 

 at the ground level. This is u coppice " one of the regular 

 systems of forestry. Trees cut high up are " pollards," 

 and usually offer the spectacle of young shoots on old 

 decaying stumps. All the old Oaks in the Colony, almost 

 without exception, have been pollarded at some time, and 

 are unsound in consequence. 



Puiiard trees have their uses on farms, though even 

 there they are tenant's more than owner's trees. But the 

 indiscriminate lopping and topping of road-side and avenue 

 trees had become a public evil in Cape Colony, and is now 

 forbidden by Act of Parliament. Hoad-side trees cannot be 



