ON PRUNING FOREST TREES, ETC. 137 
a large or valuable tree. Were pruning altogether abandoned, 
trees of fifty years’ standing would generally be of more value, 
rough, knotty, and forked as a great part of the timber would 
be, than those subjected to such an injurious method. 
It is in hedgerows and other open situations, where trees 
are apt to ramify into an unprofitable figure, that pruning is 
of the greatest value; but even in such situations it is not 
necessary to shorten all the branches previously to their being 
removed from the trunk, though it is to be recommended in 
dealing with all luxuriant branches, particularly near the top 
shoot, and in checking such throughout the tree ; the progress 
of such being impeded in a greater or less degree in proportion 
to the distance from their extremities at which they are cut. 
When trees have advanced from ten to fourteen feet, the 
oldest and stoutest branches (previously shortened) may then 
be removed from the stem. Sometimes the small pruning- 
saw is employed as the most efficient implement, observing 
that at the junction of each branch to the stem there is a 
swell or bulge, and the branch should be removed close to the 
outside of it, at which point the diameter is not so great as at 
the very bottom, consequently a much smaller wound is occa- 
sioned, and sooner healed. When plantations are closely 
attended to, however, the pruning-saw is seldom required. 
The knife is the safest implement, its wounds heal most 
readily, and where the branches are sufficiently checked by 
being shortened they do not acquire a diameter beyond its 
power. When trees are from fourteen to'twenty-five feet in 
height, or from twelve to twenty years of age, they generally 
advance very rapidly, and if not standing close in a plantation, 
admit of more pruning than at any other period; but under 
any circumstances trees are much injured by being severely 
pruned; for, as already stated, pruning is only of much 
advantage when performed early in those side branches which 
are apt to bear too great a proportion to the leading branch, 
thereby modifying the tree and directing its energies gradually 
to the top, preserving at the same time a sufficient quantity 
of foliage. All young hardwood trees should have tops long 
