418 Planting and pruning Forest Trees, 



as the hairs begin to grow out and fall off from my old head ; 

 but both he and Mr. Monteith are sadly mistaken in this 

 point. It is well known that every knot and every bough 

 proceeds direct from the centre of the stem ; and, whether 

 they are cut off, or not cut off, they would still be knots, and 

 the sooner they are cut off the better. A tree lays on its 

 wood in the same way as a candle is increased by frequent 

 dippings ; every season, like every dip, lays on a fresh coat ; 

 and the sooner that the wick of a candle, or the stem of a 

 tree, is made smooth, the more free will either be from un- 

 sightly protuberances. Every nurseryman knows how to 

 prune a standard apple tree, so as to give it a fine clean stem ; 

 and every forester should know how to grow a rail, or a scaf- 

 fold-pole, a mill-shaft, or mast of a ship : but Mr. Blaikie's 

 system of foreshortening deprives him of even bends or knees 

 for ship timber. The beech trees which he mentions as having 

 been pruned eighty years ago, should have been pruned just 

 a hundred years ago, as I presume they were above twenty 

 years old at the time of pruning ; and, if they had been fore- 

 shortened, they would have been of still less value. Most 

 carpenters, &c, disapprove of pruning trees, as they say that 

 the finest timber is from the forests abroad, where pruning 

 was never thought of. I grant this is true ; but such trees 

 were planted or sown by the hand of Nature, and, perhaps, 

 came up as thick as in a nurseryman's seed-bed; so that then- 

 branches were all killed and rotten before they were more 

 than twigs. At length they began to oppress and kill each 

 other, just as the world does : the stronger always oppress the 

 weaker, and such as get the lead are sure to keep it, so as to 

 kill all their little companions ; and there they reign, lords of 

 the forest, for perhaps a couple of centuries, when they come to 

 England, fine-grained, free from knots, and everything that a 

 carpenter can wish for. This is called natural pruning : but 

 in England, where every acre of land and every rail is of some 

 value, pruning well is pruning profitably. Hoping that every 

 forester will make himself well acquainted with the process of 

 making candles, for the purpose of throwing light on the sub- 

 ject of pruning, 



I remain, Sir, yours, &c. 



Agronome. 



P. S. — I am particularly pleased with your anonymous 

 correspondent's critique on Sir Henry Steuart's work : it is 

 almost word for word of one I had written some time ago, 

 but never sent ; and I believe that all the letters of anonymous 

 writers are like the votes or speeches of a member of parlia- 



