340 



PRUNING. 



pruning has but little to do with the production of spurs that are prolific in 

 blossoms : that depends far more on adjusting the nourishment supplied by 

 the root to the demands of the fruit-bearing branches, to the mode of train- 

 ing, the kind of tree, and other particulars, which, when attended to, spurs 

 are produced naturally. This subject, therefore, can only be properly 

 treated when giving the culture of particular trees. 



762. Heading-in is cutting off all the branches which form the head of a 

 tree close to the top of the stem, leaving however their base to produce buds. 

 This is done with w^hat are called polled or pollard trees periodically, for 

 the sake of the branches produced as fagot or fence wood, and with fruit 

 trees when they are to be re-grafted (653). It is also done with stunted 

 forest trees, for the sake of concentrating the sap into a few main shoots, 

 instead of distributing it over a great many ; and it is done in transplanting 

 trees of considerable size intended to form avenues, or single trees in parks 

 (713). The branches, if under two inches in diameter, are cut off clean 

 with a bill (410) at one stroke ; or if they are larger, they are first sawn oflp, 

 and afterwards the section is made smooth with the bill-axe or the knife, 

 but generally with what is called the bill-knife. 



763. Lopping. — This term is very generally applied to heading-in, but it 

 is also as generally used to signify the cutting off large branches from the 

 sides of stems, and in this sense we shall here treat of it. Lopping is per- 

 formed by foresters in three manners, two of which are highly injurious to 

 the timber of the trunk of the tree, and the other not so. The first injurious 

 practice is that of 



764. Close Lopping^ by which a large wound is produced, the surface of 

 which not only never can unite with the new wood which is formed over it, 

 because, as we have seen (637), growing tissue can only unite to growing 

 tissue, but the wood in the centre of the wound will, in all probability, begin 

 to rot before it is covered over, and consequently the timber of the trunk 

 will be more or less injured. Even if, by covering the wound with compo- 

 sition to exclude the w^eather, the surface of the section should be prevented 

 fi"om rotting, still there would be a blemish in the timber, in the form of a 

 distinct line of demarcation between the new wood and the old. The second 

 injurious mode of lopping is, that of cutting off side branches at from six 

 inches to a foot, or even two feet, from the trunk, which is called, 



765. Snag Lopping. — By this mode there can be no efficient source of 

 returning sap, the wounds can never heal over, and are certain, in connexion 

 with the stumps on which they are made, to rot and disfigure and deteriorate 

 the timber much more than in the case of close lopping. 



766. Lopping -in. — The only mode of lopping large branches from the 

 sides of the trunks of trees, without injuring the timber in these trunks, is 

 to shorten them to a branch of sufficient size to heal the wound at its base, 

 or at all events to maintain the growth of the whole of the part of the branch 

 left, and prevent any decay from reaching the trunk. Clean timber, that is 

 timber free from knots, will not be produced by this mode, but sound timber 

 will be the result, which is much more valuable than the apparently clean 

 and sound timber that would have been produced by close lopping, and 

 letting the tree stand till the wounds were covered with new wood and bark. 

 If the branch had not been lopped, it would have continued to increase in 

 diameter in as great a ratio as the stem ; but when lopped so as to produce 

 only as much foliage as keeps the part left alive, such part will increase very 



