OF PRUNING TREES. 115 



according to their own private judgment than 

 upon any well-founded scientific rules. When I 



went to B as under forester, I found the 



head forester an old man, who had reared up 

 most of the plantations upon the estate ; and the 

 situation being in a high exposed part of the coun- 

 try, he had never either pruned or thinned much ; 

 in fact, in the most of cases, pruning had never 

 been practised at all, from the idea that the baring 

 of the trees of their branches would diminish the 

 shelter that the trees were meant to produce. Many 

 of the plantations consisted principally of a mixture 

 of ash, elm, and plane-trees ; and from tlie circum- 

 stance of the firs having been cut out pretty early, 

 the trees were low-set, and spreacUng in the habit of 

 their branches, never having been much drawn up, 

 and were about thirty years old. Shortly after I 

 went to this place, the old forester died, and a young 

 man was appointed in his place. The proprietor 

 wishing to have his plantations improved, and 

 having no knowledge of how the work ought to be 

 done himself, he of course left the whole manage- 

 ment of his plantations to his forester. The new 

 forester set about the pruning and thinning of 

 some of the plantations at once, and a number of 

 men were set to accomplish this : I was appointed 

 one of the pruners, and my orders from the forester 

 were, to prune all the trees left standing upon the 

 ground, and to give every tree a clear stem to 



