226 PRUNING. 



have a specific character of growth, with a more or 

 less branched head, which they naturally assume 

 when at liberty so to do, they submit to the direction 

 of skill, and many trees of bush-headed character 

 may be trained into a light and aspiring shape, with 

 a well-proportioned length of bole. 



To take care that every tree has a principal leader 

 is a material object of early management, and to 

 maintain its superiority in the future growth, a chief 

 point to be attended to. All laterals that show a 

 rivalry so as to divide or deform the axis or main 

 trunk, should be displaced; and before they attain 

 such a size as to endanger its soundness by removal. 

 Very small branches or spray need not be removed 

 from the stem ; whether they live or die they cannot 

 deteriorate the timber. 



Forest-tree pruning may be continued till the 

 plants are twenty years old or more, after that time 

 the trouble and expense of the business makes it 

 inexpedient ; but if they have been judiciously pruned 

 up to that age, sufficiently fme forms will have been 

 given, and proper length of stem secured. 



A great deal has been said relative to the propriety 

 of lopping trees as a means of increasing the size of 

 the bole. The question lies in a nut-shell : the 

 larger the head be, the greater must the trunk be 

 also : the diameter of the latter is formed by the 

 number of branches which are or have been produced 

 by the former. In proportion as the roots increase, 

 in like proportion are the stem and head extended. 

 Severe mutilation of the head paralyses the energy 



