228 PRUNING. 



The foregoing remarks are applicable to deciduous 

 trees only ; and with respect to them the forester has 

 only to bestow the necessary attention for a few 

 years to give the desired form while they are within 

 convenient reach ; if the vigour be properly directed 

 in their youth they will seldom fail to grow up hand- 

 some and valuable timber trees. 



As a rule, every branch which shows a rivalry to 

 the leader should be displaced by the knife or turn- 

 ing-saw, close to the stem, as soon as it has attained 

 a diameter of one inch ; such a wound will be quickly 

 healed, and without risk of injury to the timber. 



As the different kinds of forest trees are used for 

 various purposes, the forester endeavours to supply 

 the various demands. It is wrong that any advantage 

 derivable from woodlands should be left to chance. 

 Some tradesmen require the straightest and clearest 

 grained oak for planking, beams, posts, &c. Besides 

 this, in the dock yards, cross-grained butts and knee 

 timbers are in request, and consequently valuable. The 

 former description of oak, as well as that of all other 

 trees, is obtained in the shortest time by a rather 

 close order of planting, and early and careful prunings 

 and thinnings if requisite ; the latter by open planting 

 and partial pruning; that is, not by aiming at a tall 

 smooth bole, but by leaving the branches in sets, as it 

 may happen, of three or four diverging from one place, 

 and clearing the stem of all intermediate branches and 

 spray between the sets. This style of pruning, 

 though it has never perhaps been executed, is, never- 

 theless, quite practicable ; it is only pruning the oak 



