Trees for Timber. 381 



practised with great advantage, as in hedgerow timber, where it 

 is desirable to keep the head within moderate bounds ; also in 

 woods, where the undergrowth is in request as cover for game ; 

 and in places where copsewood is of more than ordinary value ; 

 as, by due attention to this mode of pruning, the head of the 

 tree may be kept conical, instead of flat, and an equal extent of 

 surface be presented to the atmosphere for the benefit of the 

 plant. The foreshortening method should also be practised 

 in all cases where it is wished to curtail or retrench rambling 

 branches. 



These leading points kept in view, they will embrace most 

 cases connected with the rearing of timber, so as to render it tall 

 in the stem, and as sound and free from other defects as circum- 

 stances of soil and situation will admit ; so that, by close pruning 

 generally, and foreshortening occasionally, they may be so com- 

 bined as to produce the most favourable results. 



It may here be remarked, that the defect called wind-shakes, 

 which is often imputed to soil, more frequently proceeds from 

 trees being drawn up too weak when young, and afterwards 

 suddenly exposed by the removal of all the underwood at once ; 

 which, from its being often permitted to stand uncut too long, 

 increases the evil. The same defect is also produced, at a more 

 advanced age, when part of a wood is cut down, by the sudden 

 exposure of those which are left, to the effects of every blast. 

 Another evil attends sudden exposure, from the cold acting on the 

 sap-vessels and the sap, and preventing its propulsion or ascent, 

 and, consequently, depriving part of the plant of the degree of 

 nourishment which it had been accustomed to receive. Hence 

 we see frequently dead-topped old trees, and stunted young 

 ones^ as also the evil of a profusion of small lateral branches 

 breaking out from the trunk; which latter occurrence often 

 arises, also, from injudicious and excessive pruning, which, as 

 well as sudden exposure, ought to be guarded against, keeping 

 in mind that prevention is better than cure. But, above all, as 

 the principal cause of decay and rottenness in the stem is from 

 injudicious lopping off of large branches, let that be avoided, 

 except in cases where foreshortening or terminal pruning, for 

 certain purposes, may be resorted to. 



At the expiration of four years from the time of planting, if 

 the plantation have prospered, and the plants be beginning to 

 meet, it will be necessary to commence thinning : but this is 

 shamefully neglected in too many places, often to the total ruin 

 of the whole plantation. It is here taken for granted that the 

 plants were put out not wider than 4 ft. nor less than 3 ft. 

 asunder; that the nurses consist principally of larch, spruce fir, 

 birch, and the Scotch pine, where the soil is light and the situ- 

 ation exposed ; and in certain places, where soil and situation 



