Cruiclcshank 's " Practical Planter." 679 



and, of course, very small, are to be removed from a tree 

 having nine or ten tiers of branches upon it ; the residue of 

 branches left upon the tree being, by Mr. Pontey's Pruner, 

 seven tiers, and by Mr. Cruickshank's quotation four tiers : 

 but let any one read from p. 17S. to p. 190. in Pontey's Pruner, 

 and he will discover a still greater difference between Mr. 

 Pontey's ideas of pruning firs, and Mr. Cruickshank's asser- 

 tion reffardinsr the number of branches to be removed, than 

 is shown even in this statement. 



A fir, too severely pruned, sometimes - bleeds at intervals, 

 till it regains its proper quantity of branches- 

 Oak, ash, elm, &c, under such circumstances, throw out 

 lateral branches upon the stem, and near the largest wounds. 

 Ponteys practice produces none of these effects. But to return ; 

 Mr. Cruickshank says, " Let any person remove this number 

 of living branches," &c. Mark the matchless modesty of the 

 man : " Let any one try the experiment," — an experiment that 

 is to be of three years' duration. Has he not already tried 

 it ? If so, why not assert it ? Possibly he has cogent and 

 special reasons moving him thereto. It may be in this case 

 also that his opinion is founded rather on careful calculation 

 than on actual experience. However that may be, I am not 

 about to state that the extent of pruning he mentions would 

 not in some trifling degree, for a short time, affect the pro- 

 gress of the plant: it certainly would. Nor am I alone in 

 this opinion; for I find a note in Pontey's Pruner (p. 185.), 

 which says, in the Transactions of the Society of' Arts, vol. xxiv. 

 p. 68., we have a paper " on the advantages and method of 

 pruning fir trees," by Mr. Salmon, surveyor and wood-agent 

 to his Grace the Duke of Bedford, which clearly shows the 

 propriety both of pruning and cutting close. The opinion 

 of a person so intimately acquainted with the application of 

 timber cannot fail to be conclusive on these points. Still I 

 think his theory, both with regard to the quantity of tiers 

 of branches to be taken off at once, and the period to elapse 

 between the primings, is highly objectionable. For a long 

 observation has convinced me, that " taking a large quantity 

 of branches from a fir, at once, disorders it so far as con* 

 siderably to retard its growth, even in shelter." But has our 

 worthy author indeed written a book of 440 pages upon 

 this subject, and has he still to be told, that, even allowing 

 the tree at this age in the first instance to be somewhat too 

 severely pruned, the first or second year's growth would again 

 set the matter right ; and has he also to be told, that the cut 

 produced by the taking off of branches from one quarter to 

 half an inch in diameter, being the si&e alluded to both by 



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