GENERAL DIRECTIONS. 



409 



winds which sweep through the plantation, and render the ground so 

 hard that the trees ia consequence become unhealthy. But by this 

 method the green branches preserve moisture in the earth to make 

 them healthy, and to arrive at great magnitude. Provided we use 

 proper caution in pruning, and do not cut very large branches, it is not 

 of very material consequence what season we choose for the operation ; 

 and the smaller wounds caused by the prudent and gradual pruning 

 above recommended will heal in a reasonable time and without any 

 great damage at any season of the year. 



" Where hedge-row trees and trees in open situations are intended 

 for profitable timber, pruning should commence at an early period of 

 their growth, encouraging the leading or main stem by displacing or 

 foreshortening all over-luxuriant or aspiring side-shoots, by ripping off 

 buds likely to contend with the leader, gradually clearing the lower 

 part of the stem or side-shoots, and forming the top into the shape of a 

 very open cone ; that cone, while the trees are under ten years of age, 

 occupying nearly half the length of the tree, and generally diminishing 

 from that proportion as the tree advances, till eventually, when about 

 thirty years of age the tree wiU have acquired sufficient length of stem, 

 the cone or top may occupy from a third to a fourth part of the whole 

 length. All lower branches should be removed before they exceed an 

 inch in diameter. Trees thus managed will form close and healthy 

 stems without any interior blemish, and be trained to any reasonable 

 altitude, according to the soU, subsoil, and situation on which they 

 grow ; but if neglected, such is the propensity of most sorts of what 

 are called ' round-headed trees,' in open spaces, to run into branches, 

 that without due attention the foliage will become too voluminous for 

 the roots, and a check to loftiness and the formation of useful timber 

 will ensue." 



To trust to close planting and to disregard thinning under 

 the idea that nature-pruning is all that trees require is one of 

 the great errors into which inex- 

 perienced persons fall. The evil 

 consequences attendant upon 

 such a course are shown by such 

 examples as the following sent to 

 me some years ago by Mr. Hamer- 

 ton, of Hellifield Peel. " The two 

 following transverse sections as nearly as possible resemble the 

 originals, one of which is taken from a tree of my own growth, 

 and the other from a crowded plantation of about 1000 acres, 

 which it gave me very great pain to view. The one is pro- 



Fig, xcl. 



