44-2 FOREST PLANTATION. \Juty. 



fuch, it is requifite carefully to feek back for a 

 thriving lateral. If fuch cannot be got near the 

 bole of the plant, it will anfwer pretty well to take 

 the prefent and preceding year's growths away ; 

 thereby the flow of the juices will -be checked, 

 and confequently the increafe of the bough. The 

 branches, fo fhortencd in, may be allowed to re- 

 main, till it fall to their lot, in the progrefs of 

 pruning, to be removed. 



Larch es,fituated in narrow fir ipes, and on the out- 

 jfides of timber plantations, fhouid be deprived of the 

 loweft tier of their branches when they are eight feet 

 high ; and, every year after, a tier of branches ought 

 to be removed. In the interior of plantations, and 

 efpecially of very large plantations which have 

 been thick planted, and which have thriven well, 

 the underrnoft tiers of larch trees will be fo weak- 

 ened, that perhaps two or three tiers may be taken 

 off at once, without any injury to the plants. The 

 fame may be faid of all the firs : Yet none of the 

 branches, fo to be removed, ought to remain on 

 the tree till they have ceafed to grow. Both the 

 larch and fir branches mould be cut off while 

 they are alive. If dead branches remain for a 

 year or two upon any tree, and afterwards be cut 

 off, the blemifhes in the wood, when it comes to 

 be ufed, will be fenfibly greater than if they had 

 been removed in time : And if a dead branch be 

 allowed for a number of years, efpecially upon 



the 



