400 PRUNING PEOPEK 



compels all the superfluous sap to travel into the leader where 

 it is wanted. 



Nature of herself performs this operation in countries where 

 forests spring up naturally. Multitudes of trees start, self- 

 sown, from the earth ; a thicket appears ; all lateral shoots 

 perish — they are stopped by the consequences attendant upon 

 want of light and air, and a vast array of poles is the result. 

 By degrees the weakest poles die ; spaces are thus cleared in 

 the forests, room is made for the trees which remain, and 

 enables them to develope their heads ; long straight timber is 

 the result. But this is a costly process that can scarcely be 

 imitated with advantage. 



Pruning then becomes inevitable, and the forester is required 

 to determine how it can be best performed. 



No one will deny that the sooner it is performed the better, 

 wounds in young wood heaKng quickly ; and that the longer it 

 is deferred the worse the consequences, the wounds in old wood 

 being large and incurable. The operation may be considered 

 under four different heads — -pruning, properly so called ; fore- 

 shortening ; snagging, or lopping ; and amputating: 



1. Pruning. — This is performed upon branches which can 

 be removed by a " draw " or two from the knife of a strong 

 man. It should always be made perpendicularly and close up 

 to the stem whence the branch is removed. The wound thus 

 formed soon disappears, and although the surface of the wound 

 remains as a permanent fault in the timber, yet it is so small 

 as to be of no practical importance. Where stopping is 

 neglected, such pruning is the most unobjectionable substitute, 

 and it must be admitted that on large woodland property it is 

 imavoidable. 



Considering the great difffirences that exist among trees it 

 seems impossible to reduce the art of pruning for timber to 

 anything more than general principles. The Oak grows 

 differently from the Ash, the Beech from the Sycamore, the 

 Scotch Pine from the Larch Fir, and so on. In plants like 

 the Spruce and Larch Mr. Andrew Knight used to remove the 

 lower alternate tiers annually, and eventually all the lowest ; 

 but this could not be done with an Elm, whose branches 



