Jan."] PRUNING, &c. 



mti ft be commenced the fir ft year after planting ; 

 and will at that time c infill in removing tv^ry 

 branch competing with the leader for the afcen- 

 dancy ; and thinning the fmaller fide moots and 

 twigs on the boles of the plant ; leaving a fuf- 

 ficient number to promote an equal diftribution of 

 the fap over the whole plant. The fame attention to 

 thefe will be annually required, till they arrive at 

 maturity. Care, however, muft always be taken^ 

 that the tops be neither too much lii;hrened nor 

 left too thick : The proportion which the top of 

 a grove- tree, from twenty years old and upwards, 

 mould occupy, is about a third part of tht height 

 of the plant ; thus, if the tree be thirty feet high, 

 the top mould be ten feet* But, in infancy, 

 grove trees mould be feathered from the bottom 

 upwards, keeping the tops light and fpiral, fome- 

 thing refembling a young Larch. A figure of 

 fuch a tree, eight years of age, will be found in 

 Plate I. fig. 3, The proportion of the tops 

 mould be gradually diminished, year by year^ 

 till, about their twentieth year, they come to 

 bear the above proportion to the fize of the 

 plants. In cutting, or pruning off the branches, 

 the uttnoft care muft be taken not to leave any 1 

 ftumps (ticking out, but to cut them in to the 

 quick. It is only by this m j ans that clean timber 

 can be procured for the joiner ; or lightly fmooth 

 ftemmed trees to pleafe the eye. 



K % la 



