THE MANSE GARDEN. 101 



it is not easy to endure the sight without a feeling 

 of compassion for the tree, and of indignation against 

 its owner. In high and exposed situations the west 

 or southwest wind, not so much by its frequency, 

 compared with the east, as by its greater force, gives 

 uniformly an eastward inclination to the heads of 

 trees; but this also may be corrected by a due atten- 

 tion to the use of the knife. Begin by cutting off, 

 on the west side, such branches as slope away from 

 the wind, and lean towards the heart of the tree ; 

 leave those lateral shoots which point westward to 

 take the lead in the subsequent growth, and let the 

 temporary loss of wood which you thus occasion on 

 the one side be balanced by an equal reduction on 

 the other. Thus the branch on the most exposed 

 side is made to point to the wind like an arrow, and 

 is ame to maintain its position, as it suffers the pres- 

 sure only on its extremity; whereas one that is more 

 elevated presents its side to the wind, and, like a 

 flagstaff, sustains the pressure over its whole length, 

 till, bending away in an opposite direction, it finds 

 relief by presenting its lower extremity to the power 

 that assails it. 



Let it not be supposed that all this care in pro- 

 moting an equal distribution of the tree is merely to 

 please the eye, or that the production of round tops 

 is the best calculated for that entertainment : on the 

 contrary, I would judge that tree by much the hand- 

 somest that has the most decided bearing against the 

 worst wind ; and certainly nothing can be more un- 

 sightly than a tree so affected by the sweep of the 

 blast as to resemble a besom that has been used to 

 only on one side. But there is here a greater 





