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NOTICES OF AUTHORS. 



prevent this. We therefore consider pruning, ex- 

 cepting in a very sHght degree, to guide to one lead- 

 er, and to remove the sickly, lower, moss-covered 

 branches a few seasons earlier than they would have 

 dropped off in the common course of decay, to be ge- 

 nerally preventive of quantity of wood-deposit, even 

 of common marketable timber, in any considerable 

 number of years, although pruning to a greater degree 

 is often necessary where fine clean timber is required. 



Om' author's next implied assumption, that a tree 

 produces best timber in a soil and climate natural 

 to it (we suppose by this is meant the soil and climate 

 where the kind of tree is naturally found growing), 

 is, we think, at least exceedingly hypothetical ; and, 

 judging from our facts, incorrect. The natm'al soil 

 and climate of a tree, is often very far from being the 

 soil and climate most suited to its growth, and is only 

 the situation where it has greater 'power of occu- 

 pancy, than any other plant whose germ is pre- 

 sent. The pines do not cover the pine barrens of 

 America, because they prefer such soil, or grow most 

 luxuriant in such soil ; they would thrive much bet- 

 ter, that is, grow faster, in the natural allotment of 

 the oak and the walnut, and also mature to a 

 better wood in this deeper richer soil. But the 



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