iM Steuarfs Plantei^^s Guide. 



is gained as effectually by a few branches to a head as by 

 many." 



Now, to explain this certainly unguarded dictum of those 

 highly respectable authorities, it is necessary to premise, that 

 there are various objects which the cultivator has in view in 

 pruning as well as planting trees. Woods which have been 

 planted or kept entirely with a view to profit, are managed 

 accordingly; the inter-distances are so regulated, that the 

 whole shall rise as soon as possible, into straight, marketable 

 timber. The manager's knowledge of the qualities of the soil, 

 situation, and nature of the trees, will determine the distances 

 of the principals, and his future endeavours will be chiefly 

 directed to obtain a leading shoot to form a straight bole ; and, 

 in pruning, he will as much as possible encourage the leader, 

 by displacing rival branches, in order to throw the growth 

 into the stem. Now this pruning is executed, not only widi 

 reference to the individual, but to all the trees which imme- 

 diately surroimd it; and, according to the inter-distances, their 

 heads are left more or less extensive, so that the whole form 

 one united canopy of foliage. In this style of raising timber, 

 it is the quantity of saleable stuff jper acre which is looked to, 

 and nothing else. 



Whether or not a greater quantity of timber could be 

 raised by leaving each individual tree at such a distance as 

 would allow each to assume its natural form, is a question 

 among woodmen, which I believe is yet undecided. An acre 

 so planted, and undercropped with the best underwood, is, 

 however, generally allowed to be the most profitable ; in this 

 case, no pruning after the first five years is ever thought of; 

 and certainly no wood-steward would ever think of pruning a 

 single tree : because the peculiar value of the latter is fine 

 form and graceful outline, while, with regard to the former, 

 the quantity of straight timber is the sole object. 



In this artificial mode of raising timber, the most intelligent 

 and experienced men may differ in opinion ; and I more than 

 suspect that both Messrs. Pontey and Sang, as well as your- 

 self, have been misunderstood, if you neglected to mark whe- 

 ther it was the artijicial or 7?ai??«-a/ management of timber trees 

 of which you were writing. In raising compass-timber for the 

 navy, no one surely would " rudely control" the natural tor- 

 tuous branching of the oak ; and, on the other hand, no wise 

 plantei', whose object is raising poles for the mast or house- 

 builder, would allow a lateral rival branch of any size to remain. 

 Thus the passage in ^owc Encyc. of Gard.^ p. 582., so strongly 

 objected to by Sir Henry, may be considei'ed as both right 

 and wrong, accordingly as it may be applied. 



