Jan."] PRUNING, &c. 



mould be left quite feathered from the bottom up- 

 wards, to give the grove a clothed and maflive 

 air. This precaution is efpecially neceifary, till 

 it arrive at its twentieth or thirtieth year. 



PRUNING LARCH AND FIR GROVES. 



IT has been hinted above, that Firs mould not 

 be pruned at fo early an age, as the deciduous or 

 hard wood kinds. The pruning of a Larch grove 

 fhould be commenced about its fixth or eighth 

 year, according to its ftrength or vigour. No 

 more than one, or at the mofl two tiers of branches 

 mould be removed at once;* othenvife thefe 

 trees might be much injured. The fize of the 

 tops mould be gradually diminifhed, as recom- 

 mended for the nurfes in the preceding article, 

 till they are in the fore-mentioned proportion, 

 which proportion muft be continued to the end. 

 The Hurts of the Larch grove muft not be either fo 



much 



* Three years ago we knew a gentleman remove five or 

 six tiers of branches from a good number of Larches, from 

 fifteen to eighteen feet high ; and although it K now three 

 seasons since it was done, the trees still exhibit a pallid and 

 sickly appearance, and probably will never resume their 

 wonted vigour, Those in the same plantation which escap- 

 ed the fury of the pruner, are as green and vigorous as can 

 be desired, 



