Pollards: Control of Shapes in the Growth. 



61 



trees hollow and unsightly objects, but in some cases it is not ■with- 

 out advantages. Along the Rio Grande Valley, in New Mexico, it 



41. Improper Mode of 

 Cuitiug Pollards. 



42, 43. Proper Modes of Cutting Pollards. 



has long been the practice to' thus cut back the tops of cottonwoods 

 in order to obtain fuel. 



227. A great advantage is gained in some cases by fore-shortening 

 the branches by trimming off their ends, so as to give the top a more 

 symmetrical form, and a denser growth. This practice has been 

 very fully described, and its advantages shown by the Count Des 

 Cars, in France, and previously by the Viscount de Courval. When 

 applied to the oak, it has sometimes led to remarkable success in 

 growth, and in ornamental planting it may be sometimes applied to 

 great advantage.^ 



228. In Italy the olive is thus cut back to secure a more vigorous 

 growth of the young wood, and the trunk often becomes hollow, but 

 it will survive the injuries for a long time. The marbled and 

 gnarled appearance of the grain of this wood, as often seen in orna- 

 mental work, is chiefly from this cause. The knotted heads of pol- 

 lard poplar trunks are sometimes cut into 

 thin plates for fancy work, and produce a 

 beautiful effect. 



229. An upright growth may be secured 

 by lopping off the side branches, and bend- 

 ing the more promising ones upright, secur- 

 ing by a pole lashed to the tree, or driven 

 into the ground, and sometimes by binding 

 one branch around another, as shown in the 

 adjacent cuts. 



1 Pull accounts of this method and its results may be found in our first Ee- 

 port upon Forestry (1877), pp. 92, 93, 98. 



Modes of securing an 

 Upright Growtli. 



