254 AMERICAN POMOLOGY. 



of the knife, the saw, nor the hatchet. True, and yet they 

 have all been pruned by nature. She prunes and trains 

 magnificently, and gives us the finest models for imitation, 

 whether for park scenery, as in the lone tree of the prairie, 

 or in the scattered groups of the island groves that are so 

 often seen in the broad savannas of the West, or in forests 

 of noble shafts, gazed at with admiration, then felled by 

 the ruthless ax, and converted to man's economic uses. 

 She also shows us the pattern in the dense pineries, and 

 other timber tracts of our country. All these have been 

 pruned into their present condition by the hand of nature. 

 In the single specimen, free access of air and light have 

 enabled it to assume its full proportions, developing itself 

 on every side, and giving us the grand and beautiful ob- 

 ject we behold. The winds have tossed the branches and 

 some have been broken, the lower ones have quietly and 

 gradually yielded to the smothering influence of those 

 above them, which, in turn, have swept downward toward 

 the ground. In the groves, the scattering trees have for 

 a while enjoyed the same opportunities for development ; 

 but at length their branches have met together, and inter- 

 locked in friendly embrace. Those that were nearest the 

 ground had already begun to suffer from the denser canopy 

 above them but the great sturdy boughs that had shot 

 upward so as to form a part of the crown, were able to re- 

 tain their vantage ground, and continue as important mem- 

 bers of the trees. In these illustrations, we have seen 

 more of nature's training than of her pruning ; but it must 

 be remembered that training is one of the objects, and in- 

 deed, a leading element of pruning, and is very properly 

 a matter for our consideration. 



