TREE CIIITURE Df SOUTH AUSTRAIU. 61 



been cut down, and fresh growths have grown up from the stumps far 

 exceeding in one year what the old stunted tree had taken several years 

 to attain. 



If pruning be done at all in a plantation it ought, by all means, to be 

 performed when the trees are young and before their branches have 

 formed any heart-wood. This is a most important point in judicious 

 forest management which it would be well for all planters to be made 

 welt aware of. When pruning is done at this stage of the tree's growth, 

 the wound quickly heals up and no damage is done to the quality of the 

 timber. Besides, when branches are cut from a tree when young, these > 

 can be taken ofi close to the bark of the stem without any risk of injury 

 to the tree. In pruning branches of this size the common priming 

 knife (Fig. 30) should be used, and the cut made upwards so that 

 a nice smooth surface may be left free of any roughness upon which 

 water could lodge. Fig. 34 shows where a branch has been taken off 

 cleanly, and Fig. 35 represents the work done in a rough and slovenly 

 manner. 



Young deciduous trees should, as much as possible, be pruned before 

 they leave the nursery. This remark has reference, of course, only tO' 

 such trees as may be in the nursery lines for two or more years ; but 

 where one-year-old trees are removed out into the plantations, any large 

 and straggling branches on these should only be shortened back to about 

 6ia. to loin, from the stem (see Fig. 36), as it is necessary that they 

 be left in order to assist in taking up and elaborating the sap for the 

 formation of woody matter during the following season. If the young 

 trees are severely pruned and planted out the same season, a good deal of 

 bleeding takes place at the wounds, and a lot of objectionable young 

 shoots are formed ; besides, there is a chance of the top of the tree 

 dying ofE from the want of suflB.cient stomacha to keep up the flow of 

 sap. Plantations formed under such circumstances seldom or never 

 give satisfaction. 



When it is thought desirable to remove branches of a larger size than 

 those just referred to, these should be shortened only, as represented 

 in Fig. 37. All that is required in cases of this kiad, is simply the 

 checlong of the larger branches in order that they may not interfere 

 with the proper growth and symmetry of the tree. 



It wiU sometimes be found that trees have become very branchy 

 from long neglect, thereby .interfering with the proper expansion and 

 straightness of the trunk. In this case, it is advisable to trim up the best 

 of them only, by checking any strong side branches which are getting too 

 much ahead of the others, and where there are two or more leading 

 shoots, these should be reduced to one only, choosing of course in all 

 cases the strongest and best in every respect as the shoot to carry on the 

 stem of the plant. Where, however, the trees have become so bi'anchy 

 and iU-shaped that they wiU. never make good timber trees, I would 

 advise their being cut down to the ground, and fresh and straight 

 growths encouraged from the Stocks. 



It may safely be concluded that, as a rule, where much pruning is 

 found to be necessary in a plantation, there has been some mismanage- 



