210 PRUNING. 



whence it may at once be understood how delicate 

 are the operations he has to practise, and how thorough 

 a knowledge he ought to possess of all the laws which 

 regulate the action of the organs of vegetation. If 

 well directed, pruning is one of the most useful, and 

 if ill directed, it is one of the most mischievous, opera- 

 tions that can take place in forests. 



" Pruning may he regarded as a necessary evil, to 

 which the wise must submit because of the ignorant, 

 the careful to cure the evils inflicted by the careless." 



No pruning can be considered practical and efficient 

 that does not interpret and clearly explain itself ; and 

 no person is capable of judiciously pruning who cannot 

 give a good and intelligent reason for so doing, by ex- 

 plaining it, if not in scientific terms, at least in a 

 manner agreeable to science. 



The skilled surgeon scarcely feels less at ease at 

 the sight of the operator's knife in the hands of the 

 surgical tyro, than the skilful forester does on seeing 

 the pruning-knife in the hands of one ignorant of the 

 laws that regulate the healthy condition of plants. 

 A thorough knowledge of vegetable physiology is as 

 essential to the man who practises pruning, as anatomy 

 is to the surgeon who amputates a leg or arm from 

 the human body ; and no person is able properly to 

 prune forest-trees who knows not well the structure 

 and whole economy of plants, and the offices which 

 every bud, leaf, twig, branch, limb, stem, or root per- 

 forms individually, as well as their relationship to 

 one another, and to the whole structure of the tree. 

 I know some foresters who prune well, and yet know 

 almost nothing of science, and also scientific men in 

 whose hands the pruning-knife would be a dangerous 

 weapon. The reason for this is very obvious : the 



