OF FOREST-TREES. 



173 



CHAP. II. 



Of PRUNING. 



J- HERE can nothing certainly be more necessary, in order to pruning, 

 than the knowledge of the course and nature of the sap, which not being 

 as yet so universally agreed on, after innumerable trials and experiments, 

 leads our arborators into many errors and mistakes. I have in this forest- 

 work occasionally recited the various opinions of several, leaving them 

 to the determination of the learned and judicious, as a considerable part 

 of natural philosophy ; Dr. Grew, Malpighius, De la Quinteny, an d 

 what is found dispersed in the philosophical transactions by our plant 

 anatomists ; without charging this chapter with repetitions. And the 

 same I have done likewise as to astrological observations, positions of the 

 stars, and planetary configurations, exhalations, and dominant power; 

 though, in compliance to custom, 1 now and then forbear to abdicate our 

 country planter's goddess ; contenting myself with the wholesomeness 

 of the air we breathe in, and the goodness of the soil. I shall, there- 

 fore, in the first place, speak of the manual operation of pruning, and 

 other instructions as they afterwards occur. 



PUT ATIO, or Pruning, is the purgation of trees in general from what 

 is superfluous. The ancients found such benefit in pruning, that they 

 feigned a goddess presided over it, as Arnobius tells us : and, in truth, 

 it is in the discreet performance of this work, that the improvement of 

 our timber and woods does as much consist, as in any thing whatso- 

 ever. A skilful planter should, therefore, be early at this work. 



It is a misery to see how our fairest trees are defaced and mangled by 

 unskilful woodmen and mischievous borderers, who go always armed 

 with short hand-bills, hacking and chopping off all that comes in their 

 way ; by which our trees are made full of knots, stubs, boils, cankers, 

 and deformed bunches, to their utter destruction. Good husbands 

 should be ashamed of it ; though I would have no woodman pretend to 

 be without all his necessary furniture, when he goes about this work ; 

 which, I, once for all, reckon to be the hand-bill, hatchet, hook, hand- 



Volume II. Z 



