562 ON USEFUL AND BOOK I. 



as every one knows, is, where properly treated, the most valu- 

 able of any; but after this kind of management its quality 

 and quantity are much injured, and, being rendered unfit for 

 every valuable purpose, it is often used as fuel. 



In managing wood with a view to ornament, pruning serves 

 important purposes. Individual trees, on the lawn, or near 

 the house, of heavy inelegant forms, may be lightened and 

 reduced to more agreeable shapes; either by cutting out 

 branches, or by incision in the bark and outer layers of wood, 

 to make young shoots spring out. The stems of single trees 

 may be shewn to advantage, or disguised where too formal. 

 Small groups may be improved in the same manner. In 

 connexion with the knife, cords and weights may frequently 

 be made use of. By this means branches may be more 

 gracefully bent by hanging stones near their extremities; or 

 their position may be altered, by fixing them with cords either 

 to other branches, or the trunk of the main tree, or to postsr 

 driven into the ground for that purpose. In this way mis- 

 shapen trees, that could ill afford to be thinned, may be balanced, 

 without cutting off any of their branches. A close formal tree 

 may be rendered irregular by separating its boughs. Stems 

 may be moulded into more agreeable curves in scenes of beauty; 

 or rift, shattered, or broken, in scenes grotesque or romantic. 

 The sky line of a plantation, too insipid from being deficient 



