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mouths by taking off side branches to that amount, then fifty of 

 the tubes from the root-mouths have no termination, and they 

 anastomose with the tubes of the other fifty, which then carry so 

 much more sap ; as they already deposit as much sap in the shape 

 of timber by exudation through their walls as they can, the addi- 

 tional sap so received by each is carried forward and applied in 

 lengthening the tube, and in depositing timber around such elon- 

 gation. Now, at first sight, this seems a justification of the 

 forester's plan ; but there are divers objections to it. In the 

 first place, the leaves either contribute nourishment to the tree 

 or they do not. If they do, then if we cut off fifty out of our 

 200 nutrient mouths (that is, 100 root-mouths and 100 leaf- 

 mouths), we obviously sacrifice a fourth of the nourishing 

 power. If, on the contrary, the leaves do not contribute nourish- 

 ment, but are simply the pistons to pump up the sap, and their 

 other functions are entirely respiratory or excretory, we find 

 that there is still a loss of power: the anastomosing power of 

 the tubes may be insufficient, or other causes, which we do not 

 understand, may operate injuriously ; but the fact is undoubted, 

 that when we do cut off the side branches of a tree, the tree 

 suffers ; and a very curious thing is, that if we operate so 

 upon an isolated tree, it suffers much more than if it were gra- 

 dually denuded of its side branches by the natural process of in- 

 sufficient thinning. I therefore say to the forester, if you will 

 sacrifice deposit of timber to getting a long thin pole, do not 

 attempt it by pruning ; but plant thick, and thin little, and allow 

 nature to do it for you. But they won't believe us, and the mis- 

 fortune is, there is no very good way of convincing them. Both 

 sides have, in the nature of things, to rest their case on prophetic 

 dogmatism. " If you had pruned that tree in time, it would have 

 been much finer," says the one ; and " If you had left these trees 

 alone, as I told you, you would not have such a discreditable ex- 

 hibition of whipping-posts," says the other. But who can prove 

 what would have been ? 



Now I would suggest to the Committee, that they should re- 

 commend to the Council to try, by experiment, to show what would 

 have been. Let them plant a few specimen trees as like as pos- 

 sible at Chiswick — the one set to be pruned, the other not. Let a 

 board bearing an explanatory inscription be set up opposite each 

 for the instruction and interest of Fellows ; and let photographs 

 of them be taken each year showing their progress. What nothing 



