126 THE NATURE AND PRACTICE 



trees always flows slowly as compared with others 

 in a sheltered spot, and seeing this, pruning ought 

 to be avoided in such a situation when the trees are 

 about ten years old. Trees growing in a sheltered 

 situation are generally in a vigorous state of growth 

 under thirty years of age ; consequently, under skil- 

 ful management, pruning may be advantageous to 

 trees in such a situation at any time under that 

 age ; but in all cases pruning should be avoided as 

 much as possible as the trees advance above ten 

 years of age. I have seen foresters practise the 

 pruning of fir-trees ; such a practice is, however, 

 the worst imaginable. ,The value of a fir-tree is 

 greatly deteriorated by its being pruned ; where the 

 branch was cut off, the tree generally loses much 

 of its sap, and is very apt to fall into bad health ; 

 and wdien such a tree is cut for timber, the pruned 

 knots always fall out of the wood, causing holes, 

 and consequently rendering such timber almost of 

 no value. 



In all cases pruning operations are seldom found 

 necessary to any considerable extent, where the 

 plantations are attended to in the way of pro- 

 perly thinning them. When hard-wood trees are 

 grown pretty close to one another, and particularly 

 with a proportion of firs to nurse and draw them 

 up rather tall than otherwise, we always find the 

 most perfect and sound timber trees ; therefore it 

 is from this circumstance that many foresters have 



