FOREST PLANTATIONS. 



that at leaft a temporary ftagnation thereof mull 

 enfue, which may, in its confequences, prove 

 highly injurious to the plants ? Neither is the in- 

 jury fuftained by checking the flow of the juices 

 the only one that will probably follow. It is ma- 

 nifeft that, by removing competing branches, 

 when they have attained perhaps half the diame- 

 ter of the trunk of the tree, the grain of the tim- 

 ber mufl be abruptly broken over, and confe- 

 quently, at fuch places, be lefs ftrong than it o- 

 therwife would have been. Befides thefe two e- 

 vils, there is another of very confiderable magni- 

 tude, namely, the lofs of the folid timber contain- 

 ed in the branches fo removed. Is it not evident, 

 that if thefe branches had been timeoufly check- 

 ed, the greater part of the matter forming their 

 folid contents would have fettled in the trunk it- 

 felt" of the, tree ? We have known plantations 

 which have been carefully pruned from infancy 

 upwards, make a better figure at twelve years of 

 age, and each tree have more folid wood in its 

 bole, than trees in a neglefted plantation of twenty 

 years of age. Timely pruning is, therefore, a 

 matter of the utmoft importance. 



But while we thus inculcate the pruning of fo- 

 reft trees, we would, at the fame time, deprecate 

 in the ftrongeft terms what, in many inftances, 

 bears the name, without poifefling a fingle cha- 

 racter of judicious pruning. We have known 



men 



