174 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK III. saw, an excellent pruning-knife, broad chisel, and mallet, all made of the 

 ^'^'Y"'^^ Ijest steel, and kept sharp ; and thus he is provided for greater, or more 

 gentle executions, purgations, recisions, and coercions ; and it is of main 

 concern, that the proper and effectual tool be applied to every work ; 

 since heavy and rude instruments do but mangle and bruise tender plants ; 

 and if they be too small, they cannot make clear and even Avork upon 

 gTeat arms and branches. The knife is for twigs and spray ; the chisel 

 for larger arms, and such amputations as the axe and bill cannot well 

 operate upon. As much to be reprehended are those who either begin 

 this work at unseasonable times, or so maim the poor branches, that 

 either out of laziness, or want of skill, they leave most of them stubs, and 

 instead of cutthig the arms and branches close to the bole, hack them off 

 a foot or two from the body of the tree, by which means they become 

 hollow and rotten, and are so many conduits to receive the rain and the 

 weather, which convey the wet to the very matrix and heart, deforming 

 the whole tree with many ugly botches, which shortens its life, and 

 utterly mars the timber. I know Sir H. Piatt tells us, the Elm should 

 be so lopped, but he says it not of his own experience, as I do. And 

 here it is that I am, once for all, to warn our disorderly husbandmen 

 from coveting to let their lops grow to an extraordinary size before they 

 take them off, as conceiving it furnishes them with the more wood for 

 the fire ; not considering how such ghastly wounds mortally affect the 

 whole body of the tree, or at least do so decay their vigour, that they 

 liereby lose more in one year than the lop amounts to, should they pare 

 them off sooner, and when the scars might be covered : in the mean- 

 while, that young Oaks prosper much in growth, by timely pruning, 

 the industrious Mr. Cook observes ; whereas some other trees, as the 

 Hornbeam, &c. though they will bear considerable lops, when there is 

 only the shell of the tree standing, yet it is much to its detriment ; 

 especially to the Ash, which if once it comes to take wet by this means, 

 rarely produces more lop to any purpose ; above all, if it decay in the 

 middle, it is then fitter for the chimney, than to stand and cumber the 

 gTOund : the same may be pronounced of most trees, which would not 

 perhaps become dotards in many ages, but for this covetous barbarity 

 and unskilful handling. 



By this animadversion alone, it were easy for an ingenious man to 

 understand how trees are to be governed ; which is, in a word, by 



