140 ON PRUNING FOREST TREES, ETC. 
is very healthy, in two years, the trees should be gone over a 
second time. Those side branches formerly shortened should 
then be removed close by the stem, and the old top reduced 
to the point where the principal leaders take a horizontal 
direction. 
The natural habit of the oak is favourable for the produc- 
tion of crooks adapted to this purpose, and where a tree of 
suitable description is found it.should be carefully assisted in 
its progress by removing every obstruction in the way of its 
horizontal growth. When a tree or limb is found to grow in 
the desired figure, the removal to a considerable extent of its 
side branches having an wpward tendency, and the leaving of 
such as are on the under side, tend to establish the spreading 
position of the limb. This method will generally occasion 
crooked trunks, which are always more valuable, of whatever 
figure, than straight trees. In many cases the shoots will 
incline to the perpendicular, and not grow in the desired 
form; but a far greater proportion of trees thus treated will 
be of a superior mould for naval purposes than are found 
among those where straight leaders have not been removed. 
The pruning of trees for picturesque effect on lawns and 
pleasure grounds being a matter of taste, where we have not 
the standard of utility to guide us, very little need be said. 
Some consider that trees which expose their trunks to a great 
height are not only most valuable but also most ornamental. 
But to display the peculiar outline and ramification of each 
species to the greatest advantage, they should be left to 
their own efforts, either standing singly or in masses, without 
anything being done to them beyond the removal of a shoot 
on the young plant when it happens to be too bushy, or the 
amputation of a decayed branch in the more advanced state 
of the tree. In nature, few objects are more lovely and mag- 
nificent than a lofty tree, happily situated in a congenial soil, 
standing unmutilated, with foliage suspended to the surface 
of the earth, and unveiling only here and there a part of its 
glossy trunk of goodly dimensions. 
For pruning, and the treatment practised on the native 
