172! MANAGEMENT OF WOODS. 



ment. There is but one case in which there can be 

 any propriety in pruning full grown trees, and that 

 is, when they are top-heavy, as it is termed. In 

 such circumstances, the removing or shortening of 

 some of their longer branches will lessen the danger 

 of their being split, broken, or torn up by the roots 

 in storms and hurricanes. But it is only with trees 

 which have not been duly pruned when young that 

 this precaution will ever need to be adopted. 



Formerly it was the general opinion that pruning 

 should be executed in the winter months only, or the 

 period which intervenes between the fall of the leaf, 

 and the swelling of the bud, in spring. Of late 

 years summer pruning has been strongly recommend- 

 ed ; but, for my own part, I have not yet had an 

 opportunity of seeing it practised on a sufficiently 

 large scale to justify me in speaking either in its 

 favour or against it. 



Before concluding this article, it may be proper 

 to say a few words on that mode of training by 

 which trees are made to assume the peculiar shapes 

 necessary for some of the purposes of ship-building. 

 When an angular shape is required, as in the knee, 

 it may be produced by stopping the upright lead- 

 er, and making choice of such one of the lateral 

 branches as may have the most proper inclination 



