OF PRUNING TREES. 117 



atmosphere cooled about them — the trunks had 

 scarcely increased any thing in girth since they 

 were pruned, and the top branches had made little 

 or no wood. The trees, generally speaking, were 

 ruined in their health, and all hope of their re- 

 covery was gone : and from this example I had in- 

 deed a lesson of experience for my future guidance, 

 and my reason for stating the circumstance here is, 

 that it may be a lesson to others also. The question 

 now comes to be, whose mismanagement had been 

 the cause of ruin in the case alluded to ? Whether 

 was the blame attributable to the old forester who 

 neglected to prune and train up the trees as he 

 ought to have done, or to the young man who 

 succeeded him and pruned the trees without due 

 consideration and experience ? In my opinion they 

 were both to blame; for, had the old forester pruned 

 and thinned in due time, all would have been well 

 in the end ; and had the young forester been more 

 cautious, and pruned and thinned gradually, all 

 might have been well also. The practical truth 

 that I wish to enforce from this instance of mis- 

 management is, that in every forester great caution, 

 combined with practical experience and reflection, 

 necessary before he commences to thin or prune 

 any plantation. A gardener or farmer, from the 

 temporary nature of the crops which they raise, 

 although they mismanage any of their crops, all 

 can be redeemed in the course of another year; 



