506 ON USEFUL AND BOOK Ti 



If I have been more diffuse in this Section than the general 

 way in which I have all along treated my subjects will justify, 

 it is because this branch of planting appears to me to have been 

 entirely overlooked by practical men, who seem in general to 

 consider culture and pruning with no other reference than to 

 the increase which it produces in the quantity of timber. It is 

 far from my intention to discard either of these practices (and 

 not in the least pruning for the removal of diseases, accidents, 

 injuries, the increase of character, or when the trees are young, 

 as will appear in the succeeding chapters) \ but if solid and dura- 

 ble timber be the object, it ought to be practised with caution 

 and discrimination. I consider it particularly necessary to offer 

 these considerations at present, as some proprietors and writers, 

 are patronizing a practice which I am fully persuaded, if per- 

 sisted in, will be attended with bad consequences. Every attempt 

 to rouse the attention of this country to the propagation and im- 

 proved management of such an important article as timber, is 

 highly commendable; but an indiscriminate universal recom- 

 mendation of any practice, without a full consideration of its 

 effects, is highly unphilosophical ; and in the case of pruning, 

 which is particularly alluded to here, is likely to be attended 

 with consequences the more dangerous, as they cannot easily 

 discover themselves until it be too late to apply a remedy. 



