Book III. 



CULTURE, &c. OF PLANTATIONS. 



959 



J*&~ 



6885. With respect to the manner of pruning, where straight timber is the object, both classes in their 

 infancy, as Sang observes, should be feathered from the bottom upwards, keeping the tops light and 

 spiral, something resembling a young larch. (Jig. 657. a) The proportion of their tops should be gradually 

 diminished, year by year, till about their twentieth 



year, when they should occupy a third part of the "^f S 



height of the plant ; that is, if the tree be thirty feet \\/ CxXL 



high, the top should be ten feet (b). In all cases in 

 pruning off the branches, the utmost care must be 

 taken not to leave any stumps sticking out, but to 

 cut them in to the quick. It is only by this means 

 that clean timber can be procured for the joiner ; or 

 sightly smooth-stemmed trees to please the eye. It 

 is a very general practice to leave snags or stumps 

 (c) ; before the bole can be enlarged sufficiently to 

 cover these, many years must elapse ; the stumps in 

 the meantime become rotten ; and the consequence 

 is timber which when sawn up (d) is only fit for fUeL 



6886. Pontey says, " The sap of a tree may be consi- 

 dered as the raw material furnished by nature ; and 

 man, the manufacturer who moulds it into the form 

 most useful for his purpose. A moderate quantity of 

 leaves and small wood is necessary to every tree ; but 

 all above that quantity are of no use to the plant, and 

 of little value to its owner." (Forest Pruner, 152, 

 153.) 



6887. Pruning for ornament or beatify must be 

 guided in its operations by what that beauty is. If 

 it is the beauty of art, then the trees may require to 

 be cut or clipped into the shape of animals (Jig.Sio.) ; 

 or inanimate natural objects, as mounds of earth, 

 mushrooms ; or geometric forms, triangles, globes, 

 cones ; or walls, columns, arcades, vases, arbors, 

 temples, theatres, or other architectural or sculptural compositions. (Jig. 658.) The dwarfing of tree* is 

 also another kind of artificial beauty, much practised by the Chinese; and though the habit be kept up 

 chiefly by withholding nourishment ; yet 

 the dwarf is produced by ringing a branch; 

 enveloping it in a ball of loam ; amputat- 

 ing it when it has mnde roots ; and then 

 pinching off all exuberance of growth so 

 as to keep it into shape. {Livingstone, 

 in Hort. Trans, iv. 224.) 

 ~ 6888. If natural beauty is desired, then 

 the pruning must be rather negative than 

 positive ; the object being to let the tree 

 assume its natural shape, or, as Sang de- 

 scribes it, " express its own nature." 

 All that man can do, therefore, in the 

 way of pruning for this object, is to assist 

 a plant of the tree kind to express the 

 characteristics of a tree ; that is, a pow- 

 erful trunk and ample spreading head, 

 which distinguishes it from a shrub; and 

 this he does by clearing a part of the tree 

 of its side branches ; and by avoiding to 

 train up a shrub with a single stem like a diminutive tree. In attending to these instructions the great 

 importance of the use of leaves must never be lost sight of: this is not, as Pontey asserts, to attract the 

 sap, but to elaborate it when propelled to them, and thus form the extract or food taken in by the plant, 

 into a fluid analogous to blood, and which is returned so formed by the leaves into the inner bark and soft 

 wood. It must be a very nice point, therefore, to determine the quantity of branches or leaves that should 

 be left on each tree ; and if no more are left than what are necessary, then in the case of accidents to them 

 from insects, the progress of the tree will be doubly retarded. Experience alone can determine these 

 things. Both Pontey and Sang agree that " strength is gained as effectually by a few branches to form a 

 head as by many." 



6889. The general seasons of pruning are winter and spring, and for the gean midsummer, as it is found 

 to gum very much at any other season. Pontey says, " as to the proper season for pruning, there is only 

 one difficulty ; and that is discovering the wrong one, or the particular time when trees will bleed. Only 

 two trees have been found which bleed uniformly at certain seasons, namely, the sycamore and firs, which 

 bleed as soon as the sap begins to move. In spring pruning, desist when this takes place." As a general 

 rule, he thinks " summer preferable to winter pruning ; because, in proportion as wounds are made early 

 they heal so much the more in the same season." (Forest Pruner, 236.) 



6890. Sang suspends pruning from the end of February to the middle of July, but carries it on during 

 every other month of the year ; the gean, or any other tree very apt to gum, he prunes only in July and 

 August. (Plant. Kal. 268.) 



6891. With respect to the implements to be used, Sang observes, " In every case where 

 the knife is capable of lopping off the branch in question, namely, in the pruning of infant 

 plants, it is the only instrument necessary. All other branches should be taken off by the 

 saw. A hatchet, or a chisel, should never be used. Every wound on the stem, or bole, 

 should be quite into the quick, that is, to the level and depth of the bark ; nor should 

 the least protuberance be left. The branch to be lopped off by the saw should, in all 

 cases, be notched or slightly cut on the under side, in order to prevent the bark from 

 being torn in the fall ; and when the branch has been removed, the edges of the wound, 

 if anywise ragged, should be pared smooth with the knife. If the tree be vigorous, na- 

 ture will soon cover the wound over with bark, without the addition of any plaster to ex- 

 clude the air. In the shortening of a strong branch, the position of which is pretty 

 upright, it should be observed to draw the saw obliquely across it, in such a manner as 

 that the face of the wound shall be incapable of retaining moisture ; and afterwards to 

 smooth the edges of the bark with the knife." (Plant. Kal. 181.) In every case where 



