36 Preventive System of pruning Forest Trees. 



Art. VII. On a System of pruning, or rather on a Preventive Sys- 

 tem of pruning, Forest Trees. By Mr. W. Billington, M.C.H.S., 

 Author of Facts and Experiments on Oaks, &c. &c. 



Sir, 

 May I beg the favour of you to give publicity to the follow- 

 ing observations and remarks on the most important part of 

 , arboriculture, viz. the art of pruning forest trees, or rather, 

 what should be termed a preventive system of pruning, in your 

 Magazine. 



Having had considerable experience in the raising of young 

 plantations of oaks for future navies, in some of the royal 

 forests, and having often seen the ill effects of the erroneous 

 methods generally adopted in pruning forest trees, or, what is 

 as bad, of its too frequent neglect, I incidentally recom- 

 mended the shortening or cutting in of from one third to two 

 thirds off the extremities of the branches of some larch trees, 

 to give light and room to the young oaks which were nearly 

 destroyed by the larches and other overgrowing and shading 

 stuff. On this account I was accused, by a superior officer, 

 and others of supposed superior skill and knowledge, of hav- 

 ing spoiled the larches by such cutting (mind, reader, when 

 they were in full leaf), they asserting that it would bleed them 

 to death at the end of the season ; and when it was found that 

 they had not bled to death, but had improved greatly in health 

 and vigour, to prove me wrong, it was as confidently asserted 

 by the same knowing ones, that it had injured them, by draw- 

 ing the sap out of the stem into the branches. Such was the 

 knowledge or motives of a superior officer and others. Not 

 thinking it worth while to contradict such knowing ones by 

 stating what others said or thought about it, being convinced 

 of its absurdity, and of their motives for opposition; and 

 although the cutting of the side branches from the stems of 

 trees at an early age had been recommended by a writer 

 (Pontey) who was considered good authority, as tending to 

 increase the timber in the trunk or stem ; I set to work imme- 

 diately to prove by experiments whether it tended to increase 

 or retard the growth of the stem, and soon found the wonder- 

 ful advantage it gave to the trees of whatever kind, as to 

 vigour and increasing the bulk and handsomeness of the stem. 

 I drew up a table of my experiments under the different 

 modes that I tried, which clearly shows the superiority of my 

 system, and the extremely injurious tendency of the other ; 

 this I published *, for the information of the public, in a 



* Entitled A Series of Facts, Hints, Observations, and Experiments on the 

 different Modes of raising young Plantations of Oaks for future Navies. By 

 W. Billington, M.C.H.S., Superintendant of planting 11,000 Acres in the 

 Forest of Dean. London, 1825. [To be reviewed in our next Number.] 



