PRUNING. 



119 



and crack in the centre and receive rain. The sec- 

 tion can also generally be made much neater and 

 closer by the saw than by any other instrument. 

 The common erroneous belief, that a section by a 

 sharp-edged instrument is less injurious than by the 

 saw, is merely hypothetical, from wide analogy from 

 animals. The pernicious influence on the whole in- 

 dividual, received and transmitted by the nerves 

 from mangled section of animal fibre, is probably en- 

 tirely awanting in vegetables ; the whole process of 

 life and of cicatrization is also totally different. 



The forester should also be very wary in cutting 

 off a considerable branch, whose section would in- 

 cline upwards, as such a section, when it has received 

 a circle of new bark and wood, forms a cup which 

 receives and contains rain water, which quickly cor- 

 rupts the bottom of the cup, and often rots the cen- 

 tre of the tree down to the ground. It is better to 

 crop such a branch several feet from the main stem, 

 close by some small feeder, unless the branch be 

 dead. In pruning, every considerable section should 

 be as near as possible at right angles with the hori- 

 zon, or rather inclining inward below. Of naval 

 timber, the beech is by far the most likely to take 

 rot by being pmned, and should never have a large 

 limb cut off, as the divided fibres generally die down- 



