232 PRUNING. 



with latent buds, throws out a numerous spray over 

 all the stem ; and, though unequal to increase the 

 diameter of the trunk as a large branched head would 

 do in the same time, yet it gives the wood a gnarled 

 character particularly useful for the naves and fellies 

 of carriage wheels, and other purposes where liability 

 to split would be a defect. 



Ages had elapsed before forest trees were considered 

 as objects worth the expense of pruning ; but during 

 the last century, the great demands made upon both 

 public and private woods and forests, and the great 

 quantities of defective timber rejected at the dock- 

 yards, at last called attention to this neglected branch 

 of rural economy. The defective state of oak timber 

 was attributed to the want of pruning. The rotten 

 stumps of branches which had been torn off by the 

 wind, and which in their decay admitted water into 

 the trunk, were said to be the cause of the disaster. 

 Pruning was therefore had recourse to ; but a bad 

 style was introduced, viz. cutting off the lower 

 branches at the distance of two or three feet from 

 the bole. This plan was soon given up ; not only 

 because it disfigured the tree, but also because many 

 of the stumps dying, the same defects followed this 

 practice as were complained of before it was had 

 recourse to. Close pruning was next recommended ; 

 but with no good result, as has been previously shown. 

 A middle course is now adopted, namely what is 

 ca\\Q& foreshortening. This method preserves all the 

 branches, but the lower ones are kept back, by having 

 their leading shoots repeatedly taken off. (Fig. 57.) 



