438 Cree's System of Pruning Forest Trees. 



it soon clears itself of all impurities. Even mismanaged trees, 

 on which a dryness of bark has occurred, may be brought to a 

 proper condition in the course of three seasons. In cases of this 

 kind, the distance from the body at which the branches are 

 amputated must be regulated by the size of the tree — the 

 larger the tree, the greater the distance. 



It has been found, experimentally, that trees under eighteen 

 feet in height, and fifteen inches in circumference, advance, taken 

 averagely, as much both in height and circumference, in six 

 years, if the branches are properly shortened, as they do in fifteen 

 years, if these are not shortened, or are improperly pruned. The 

 more trees are pruned close up to the stem before they are 

 eighteen feet high, their growth is proportionally retarded. Trees 

 pruned close to the stem, when the circumference at the part is 

 under fifteen inches, take in damp, so that the tree, if dissected 

 after a certain period at the part where the branches have been 

 cut, will be found black into the pith. This department of 

 pruning, when improperly managed, is the principal cause of 

 rot, more particularly in the larch. The reason is, the wood in 

 young trees is more open in texture than in older ones. 



I refer the enquiring reader to my several treatises on thinning 

 and pruning plantations in the Glasgo'w Farmer'' s Register, 1828, 

 and to the three articles in the Quarterly Journal of Agricul- 

 ture, vol. iii. [here reprinted with Mr. Cree's permission], in 

 which are included the prize essays of the Highland and Agri- 

 cultural Society of Scotland on the subject of pruning. All 

 with respect to science has been excluded ; and to show the ad- 

 vantage of science, I shall make some extracts from the Fdin- 

 hurgh Literary Journal, 1830. 



" Mr. Cruickshanks furnishes a minute account of all the 

 •practical details from Sir Henry Steuart's works. He cautiously 

 abstains from any attempt to make his readers acquainted with 

 the scientific "principles; a developement of which, had he given 

 it, would have rendered these details ten times more interesting 

 to any readers, learned or unlearned. But he could not deve- 

 lope what he did not comprehend ; as clearly appears from the 

 whole tenor and complexion of his book. It is the lamentable 

 want of this knowledge which has made Boutcher, Marshall, 

 and Nicol, all meritorious writers, appear unsatisfactory, Han- 

 bury useless, and Pontey ridiculous; and has rendered the 

 pruning system of the last mentioned so ruinous to the woods 

 of England. In a word, it is this want of indispensable scientific 

 information that has kept arboriculture, in all its low branches, 

 down to the low rank of a mechanical art. We should earnestly 

 advise our planters, and our writers on planting, to unite their 

 best efforts in bringing about a new era in this neglected art. 

 They should endeavour at length to learn that a tree is not, as 



