158 Upon the Pruning and Management of 



inches, and the top of the tree reduced to a single annual 

 shoot. Under these circumstances the leaves become dis- 

 persed upon the stem, so as to afford nutriment to the bark 

 of different parts of it ; and the power of the wind to prevent 

 the tree re-establishing itself is small (owing to the situation 

 of the leaves), comparatively with the extent of the foliage, 

 which the tree exposes to light. The trees under this mode 

 of treatment also bear as much fruit as they are capable of 

 feeding, as soon as under any other, that I have hitherto tried, 

 or seen ; and within three or four years their branches gene- 

 rally become more widely extended than those of similar trees, 

 which are planted without being pruned. The same mode 

 of pruning is equally well adapted to fruit and forest trees ; 

 and oaks, which I have planted when ten or twelve feet high, 

 have not only begun immediately to grow with luxuriance ; 

 but they have within a very few years wholly lost the charac- 

 ter of transplanted trees. 



The great error of modern practice is that of suffering, when 

 the trees are not headed down, many small branches to form 

 the summit of the transplanted tree ; which branches expend 

 its sap in the production of tufts of leaves, where those, owing 

 to their distance from the roots, operate least beneficially in 

 the performance of their proper office, and most injuriously 

 by being most exposed to the influence of winds. 



Whenever the roots of transplanted trees have been very 

 much injured, or have been very long out of the ground, the 

 number, as well as the extent of the lateral branches, should 

 be reduced ; and not more than a few inches of the leading 

 annual shoot should be suffered to remain ; but in all cases 

 where trees are to be sent a great distance, this retrench- 



