162 MANAGEMENT OF WOODS. 



case of firs, this use of pruning has no place. Their 

 horizontal branches never interfere with the leader, 

 nor obstruct its progress in the smallest degree. It 

 always, unless broken accidentally, or killed by the 

 frost, appears above the most elevated of the hori- 

 zontal shoots ; and they, instead of injuring or sup- 

 planting, seem to assist it in keeping its perpendi- 

 cular position, as those of the same elevation grow 

 of equal length all around it. and produce a perfect 

 equilibrium. Hence it would appear that the pru- 

 ning of firs, supposing it harmless, can yet be pro- 

 ductive of no positive good, so that to practise it 

 would be to labour and lay out money for no end, 

 a species of industry and expenditure which deserves 

 any epithet but that of rational. 



Harmless, however, the process in question is far 

 from being, and I have known more than one thri- 

 ving fir plantation utterly ruined by it. Mr PoN- 

 TEY tells us, that it is the cutting off too many 

 branches at once that causes injury, and that if we 

 take away only two or three tiers at a time, no bad 

 effect will ensue. Let any person remove this num- 

 ber of living branches from a vScots fir, or spruce, of 

 seven or eight years old ; let him, at the same time, 

 ascertain its height, and mark some of the plants 

 contiguous to it, which are exactly of the same 



