rRUNING AND THINNING. 



PT. IV. 



In such extreme cases, or wlien large branches have 

 been cut off in consequence of being shattered by wind, 

 their ends should be painted, and, if they crack, stopped 

 with putty till the wound is healed over. 



To rear first-rate timber, I think the whole surface 

 of the ground should be canopied over with the heads. 

 This canopy should, by gradual and annual pruning, 

 be raised to the greatest possible height, and by gra- 

 dual and annual thinning be supported by the fewest 

 possible stems. I think mixed woods of coppice and 

 timber bad ; because if the trees are close enough to 

 grow clean, even timber, they will destroy the coppice- 

 wood ; and if they are far enough apart to allow 

 undergrowth, they will have large side-branches and 

 irregular stems. 



It is true that the growth of coppice- wood, by kill- 

 ing all side-branches, is the great natural pruner, and 

 gives clean stems to a certain height ; but as this is 

 overdone in the youth of the plant, as soon as a 

 coppice- wood or hedgerow-tree emancipates itself from 

 the undergrowth it bursts forth hydra-headed, and 

 becomes flat-topped. The judicious saw should remedy 

 this. 



That a It is a great mistake of De Candolle, Eichard, and 



steT£^r other French writers, to lay down the branchless stem 



natural 



attribute ^ distiuctivc characteristic of a tree. All trees 



01 a tree is 



of'De*''^^ which grow singly on sheltered lawns, if permitted, 

 Candolle. ^^^^ brauchcs down to the ground, and from the 

 lowest parts of their stems ; and most beautiful objects 



