Jan."] PRUNING. 171 



cd annually, and before they attained a large fize, 

 the places from which they iffued would be im- 

 perceptible, or at lead not hurtful to the timber, 

 when it came to the hands of the artif^. 



There is no kind of foreft-tree but may with 

 propriety be pruned at this time of the year, ex- 

 cept the Gean. If this tree be cut now, or indeed 

 at any feafon, excepting the month of Auguft or 

 beginning of September, it gums exceedingly at 

 the wounds, and is much injured : but, if cut at 

 the above feafon, the wounds become healed over 

 before the winter, and never afterwards gum. 



A perfon who has been properly inftru&ed in 

 the art of pruning, and who is alive to the advan- 

 tages accruing from a judicious performance of it, 

 can hardly travel a dozen of miles in any direc- 

 tion, without having occafion to lament, and that 

 deeply, the miferably neglected flate of the plant- 

 ations in this country. 



How many young plantations do we fee, where 

 numbers of the trees are loaded with, perhaps, 

 three, four, or even five competing branches, of a 

 diameter little fhort of that of the ftem on which 

 they grow ! Thefe competing branches, when 

 put together, compofe perhaps the greater half of 

 the whole top of the tree. Suppofe that thefe be 

 pruned off: Is it not then evident, that the circu- 

 lation of the juices of the tree muft be impeded, 



that 



