PRUNING PROPER. 401 



do not grow in layers. Nevertheless writers on foresting 

 confidently recommend particular methods for everything, an 

 example of which will be found in the following directions given 

 by Gavin Cree, a weU-known Scotch forester. 



" Were tUnning properly attended to, it wotJd do miieli to accelerate 

 the growth of trees; but in most oases it is neglected. I am of 

 opinion, however, ttat in addition to thinning, pruning is advantageous 

 in promoting the size and value of timber. Stopping, or breaking off 

 the points of the branches, fulfils, to a certain extent, the purpose of 

 pruning, although I do not think it can so fully accomplish the benefit 

 which pruning will effect. The great object of the forester ought to be 

 to increase the digesting powers of the plant, and thereby administer to 

 its health and vigour. Now I maintain that shortening the branches 

 multiplies the quantity of leaves, and, at the same time, gives greater 

 activity to the sap. A large branch surely puts forth more leaves than 

 a small one, for by shortening, the number of twigs or branches is 

 multiplied almost indefinitely, so that the quantity of foliage, in the 

 aggregate, is far greater on the pruned than on the unpruned plant ; 

 while the foliage is more healthful and efficient; presenting leaves 

 as broad as two or three of those on the branches which are of an 

 extravagant length. The principle of stopping and shortening seems 

 to imply a similar design in those who practise the different methods ; 

 namely, to keep the branches within due bounds. The difference is, 

 the person who stops them takes no more from the large than from the 

 small branch ; whereas the pruner curtails each tier of branches to a 

 uniform length ; the tiers extending in breadth as they descend, in the 

 form of a cone. This, at least, is my method. I consider it to be 

 beyond the bounds of human ingenuity to act successfully in this case 

 without some regular system. I shorten the shoot next the top to one 

 half the length of the leader, and allow the lower tier to extend farther 

 than the one above it, till I reach the undermost, which is, of course, 

 the broadest. When the tree is about eighteen feet high, and fifteen 

 inches in circumference, I cut off the lowest tier close to the stem, and 

 continue yearly to cut off a tier (regularly) upwards. I have by this 

 means raised hard wood to as great a height, within the same time, as 

 Larch ; and have not discovered, either by observation or otherwise, 

 that trees were ever raised so rapidly to the same altitude, as those 

 trained on the above plan. They sometimes grew ten feet in the course 

 of three years." Mr. Cree says nothing about the unsoundness of 

 timber thus pruned when eighteen feet high. 



Better directions are given by an old forester in ihe Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, writing under the name of PhUo-Sylva. His words are 

 these : — "The only rule to attend to is to keep the top taper, preserving 

 the leading shoot clear and free from clefts, and the bole from ail the 



