PRUNING. 



163 



size. By measuring it and them three years after- 

 wards, and comparing the progress of the former, 

 made in this interval, with that of the latter, he 

 will have a practical demonstration of the utter fal- 

 lacy of Mr Pontey's assertions. The taking off 

 a few branches will not, of course, be so injurious as 

 the displacing at once of a great number, but none 

 can be displaced, as the above experiment will 

 show, without materially retarding the growth of 

 the plant. 



I have said more on this subject than I other- 

 wise would have done, as I know that Pontey is 

 considered as high authority on every thing that 

 regards pruning ; and I am willing to allow, that 

 his precepts for the application of this process to de- 

 ciduous trees, are more correct and rational than 

 those of any other previous writer whom I have con- 

 sulted. But his merits, in other respects, make his 

 errors on the subject under consideration the more 

 dangerous, by creating a deference for his opinions, 

 which leads them to be adopted without due exami- 

 nation ; and the following of his system too impli- 

 citly has already proved destructive to many a hope- 

 ful plantation of firs. If my strictures shall have 

 the effect, in any degree, of preventing the like 



L 2 



