PRUNING. 



161 



sin, when it melts, leaves a white track on the bark, 

 and every person, who has been much conversant 

 with fir plantations, must have observed that such 

 tracks always appear where a green branch has been 

 either cut or broken off, proving, beyond a doubt, 

 the fallacy of Mr Pontey's assertions. 



Independently of any other consideration, the 

 very form in which a fir grows, appears sufficient to 

 teach us, that pruning, if not attended with actual 

 injury, can at least be productive of no benefit to 

 the tree. An ash or an elm, for example, has a 

 constant tendency, if left to itself, to depart from 

 the shape which constitutes its chief value. It is 

 continually throwing out branches which become 

 rivals to the leader, and either bend it out of its 

 upright course, or starve it, by exhausting an undue 

 quantity of sap, and thereby disqualify it for carry- 

 ing up the tree. Hence the great use of pruning 

 trees of this kind is to protect the leader from the 

 rivalship of the other branches, to the end that as 

 much of the nourishment drawn from the earth 

 may be employed in promoting the growth of the 

 stem, and as little of it expended on the top, a part 

 which is comparatively of little value, as is con- 

 sistent with the laws of vegetation. But, in the 



