"Retrospective Criticism. 725 



Is attended with less perceptible lassitude in the plant* It was to illustrate 

 this position that, in my short letter on Sir Henry's book, I mentioned that, 

 " when plants are struck by cuttings, every gardener knows that an excess 

 of foliage has a tendency to exhaust the natural sap in the shoot ;" and I 

 say so still : and Mr., or Miss, or Mrs. N. H. will agree that an excess 

 of foliage will have that tendency ; otherwise, why proportion the length 

 of the cutting above to that below the ground ? If " leaves make roots " 

 without this tendency, then why not plant a cutting a yard or a yard and a 

 half long, with numerous leaves and branches ? On this principle the roots 

 will be the sooner formed. Be it observed, I was not then writing an essay 

 on cuttings : I only alluded to a well known fact connected with that 

 operation. I never either practised or spoke of stripping cuttings of their 

 leaves ,• but, if they are left in excess, the redundant part will either decay, 

 or the whole cutting will languish and die. It is not strictly logical to 

 say, that " roots make branches, and branches make roots." They have 

 intermediate functions to perform. I grant, nay, I contend, that the one 

 cannot exist long in a healthy state without the other being in fair propor- 

 tion ; but certainly N. H. has seen foliage produced without their producing 

 roots. Has he never seen a willow or poplar tree cut in winter produce 

 foliage in summer without roots ? Has he not seen the roots of deciduous 

 trees increase in spring, when the leaves were enveloped in then - winter garb ? 

 and has he never seen the willow or iSblanum Dulcamara produce roots 

 before the buds had opened ? I hope N. H. will not take these remarks 

 amiss, which he has called forth. Had he given his real name in place of a 

 fictitious signature, I might perhaps have treated him a little more cour- 

 teously. Whenever he chooses to appear in propria persona, he shall be 

 treated on my part with that respect to which, I have not the slightest 

 doubt, his merits and urbanity entitle him. In the twenty-sixth Number 

 (I think it is) a Mr. Newington has given a Mr, Houseman a severe and 

 ungardener-like drubbing. Such a scurrilous letter must recoil upon its 

 author. Although we may happen to differ in opinion on several points, it 

 does not follow that all who may venture to express an opposite opinion 

 are deficient in practical skill. Newington has lost his temper-, which some 

 would construe into a tacit acknowledgment that he had the worst of the 

 argument. I am, Sir, &c. — Archibald Gorrie. Annat Gardens, Septem- 

 ber 3. 1830. 



Pruning Timber Trees. — According to the wishes of Agronome (as one 

 of your readers) I have applied myself to candles-making, and beg to assure 

 his superior judgment, that, as far as an experience of fifteen years goes, 

 the foreshortening system of pruning forest trees answers most completely : 

 first, in giving a lead to the main stem ; and, secondly, in assisting trees to 

 tower perpendicularly, where they grow in exposed situations. Some Chi- 

 chester elms, 7 ft. high, and the size of an old gentleman's walking-stick, 

 were planted by me in 1814. The situation being favourable, the plants 

 soon threw up such vigorous shoots that, if left to themselves, they would 

 have found tops like the many-headed hydra. I commenced the work of 

 foreshortening instanter, and have continued it every year since. The 

 trees, on an average, now rise a height of 50 ft., and are conically shaped. 

 I have served oaks, ashes, and other elms, in like manner; but their height, 

 from difference of growth, does not in any case exceed 30 ft. To ascer- 

 tain the timber quality of this rapid-growing elm, I last year stubbed one 

 up, put it on the sawpits, and had it cut into gate stuff, when the scant- 

 lings became dry. The carpenters said they could discern no difference 

 between it and the wych elm of the country. As to beauty, the aspiring 

 tree forms a contrast to the umbrageous one, the pyramidal to the round 

 one ; and our woods and parks become equally the objects of admiration and 

 of utility, by at one time leaving nature to her own freaks, and at another 

 putting her into a state of pupilage. In my humble opinion such system 



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