PRUNING. 



115 



it is better to prevent the possibility of firs becoming 

 principals to the injnry of the scenery. With this ^dew^ 

 we have had hardwood^ without firs^ planted in masses 

 at four or four and a half feet apart. 



Pruning. — In the culture of forest trees, pruning is, 

 after planting, the most important operation. Its object 

 is the production of a large trunk or bole of clean sound 

 timber ; and to accomplish this, the tree is to be pruned 

 so as' to lead to the accumulation of the principal bulk 

 of the ligneous matter in the main stem. This aim 

 should be distinctly kept in view in every operation, 

 whether in the removal or shortening of the branches. 

 Reduced to this general principle, pruning is divested 

 of aU difficulty, at least when it is commenced at an 

 early period, and is regularly and carefully prosecuted. 

 After a shoot has been selected for the main stem, aU 

 other shoots, which indicate a tendency to draw off from 

 it the leading growth, should be shortened or removed. 

 For some years after planting, it will be for the most 

 part sufficient to foreshorten, that is, to cut back, the 

 side-shoots from one-third to two-thirds of their length, 

 in order to discourage their growth in a lateral direction ; 

 but this is on the supposition that the trees have taken 

 with the ground, and are in a thriving state. Where 

 hardwood does not appear to thrive by the end of the 

 second, or at most the third season from planting, it is 

 advisable in the following spring to cut the trees to the 

 ground : the result AviE. be a number of vigorous shoots, 

 of which one should be selected for the future tree, and 

 the others removed. 



Where a plantation has grown well by the end of the 

 sixth or seventh year from planting, in addition to the 

 pruning already recommended, the branches formerly 



