THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. l December i, 1888. 
ing to the varying condition of the trees, ignoring any 
system of heavy cutting, such as leaving secondaries 
only, but endeavouring to make the most of a well- 
furnished tree, namely, by removing the wood that had 
borne in order to give place to the new. In the case 
of a tree having borne a heavy crop, and little or no 
new wood having come forward to bear foliage, the 
best of the old wood, with healthy leaves, should be 
left to provide lungs and to carry the tree on till the 
showers, and tbe exhausted wood only should be re- 
moved. This plan of pruning with a view to preser- 
ving a sufficiency of foliage has proved a very successful 
one, particularly during droughts. We find almost 
invariably that the trees carrying the greatest amount 
of foliage are bearing the best crop, and we think the 
reason is obvious. The blossom, having greater pro- 
tection from the sun, is in less risk of being burnt off, 
and the tree being provided with ample " lungs," is 
enabled to absord a sufficient amount of moisture from 
the dews at night. The foregoing we consider to be 
the " light " method of pruning, and for districts with 
moderate soil, elevation, &c, is probably the best for all 
purposes. The happy " medium " however, is only 
suitable to such estates as have the advantage of 
good soil and high cultivation, where the trees are in 
good order and have bad careful pruning from the 
first. Such trees generally have more primaries, and 
the extent of wood to operate upon being more ex- 
tended, the pruning may be made a little more severe, 
and the bearing wood confined to the age of two years. 
Next comes the " heavy " system of pruning, useful in 
its way, under certain curcumstauces of fine soil and 
climate, for bringing neglected trees into shape by 
clearing out a large accumulation of centre wood ; but 
even here we would prefer to accomplish the object 
by extending the operation over a period of two or 
three years. The advocates of real heavy pruning, 
so far as we are aware, are few indeed in this district, 
but they, we suppose, have reason for their system of 
reducing the graceful form of a well-furnished tree to 
a skeleton, just at the hottest time of the year. 
Surely this excessive and sudden bleeding of the tree 
must prove detrimental to its vitality sooner or 
later, and must prejudice the production of crop. 
The circulation of sap being suddenly checked and 
confined to space causes the tree later on to force 
out a large quantity of " suckers," and when the early 
showers come, the sap runs riot and bursts out in the 
shape of malformed shoots that grow in every direction 
but the right one, and strangely opposed to the beauti- 
ful appearance of the tertiaries springing from the ripe 
secondaries left by the " medium " pruner, but ap- 
pearances being out of the question, the " heavy " 
pruners assert, and very strongly too, that by confin- 
ing the bearing wood to secondaries only, these are 
most prolific, springing as they do direct from the 
primary: but no amount of "handling" will, pre- 
vent tertiivries from growing on the secondaries, and 
the tree necessarily attains a considerable amount of 
foliage. The system, however, of growing crop from 
secondaries alone spares not the tertiaries; the 
secondary, having borne and fulfilled its function, is 
cut off, and along with it the foliage of the tertiaries. 
On a young estate, we have found the plan of taking 
crop from secondaries a very good one, until the 
primary becomes sufficiently strong to carry tertiaries; 
but very few can afford to carry this system into older 
estates. A " bumper " crop is wanted to make up for 
a bad season, and then comes the necessity of prun- 
ing according to circumstances, without adhering to 
any special rule, except to begin and finish the work 
as eoon as possible after picking the crop. 
We trust the mattor of pruning will he thoroughly 
ventilated. Experience teaches us that the equalizing 
of crops depends more on "pruning" and "handling" 
than any other part of the cultivation, and we consider 
that after giving a tree help by " manuring," the 
aim of the cultivation is to perfectly utilise the sap, in 
order to produce good and regular crops without ex- 
haustiug the tree. Taken as a whole, however, we are 
afraid that with few exceptions too much has been 
ezpeoted from pruning without the aid of mauure 
ueoewaty to nouriih the tree.— South of India Observer. 
AMERICAN TIMBER TREES. 
At the American Forest Congress, the Hon. Martin Con- 
rad thus described the leading timber trees of the United 
States most useful for economical purposes, thus : — 
Before I present the tabulated results of our cal- 
culation, I will give a short description of the five 
kinds of wood use! iu the con^truciion of farm 
wagon 1 *, for in these five wo have all the varieties 
that are used in implements and all outdoor machi- 
nery. I begin with the oak (Qnercus). Of the 150 
or more varieties of this tree 82 are native to this 
country. Of these the white oak (Q. alba) is the 
only one in demand by wagon and carriage builder*, 
and as it is at the same time the most serviceable 
for all mechanical purposes, I will describe only this 
species. The white oak is indigenous to the State of 
Illinois, and is mostly found on yellow loam of mode- 
rate fertility, although it also flourishes on our prairie 
soil. It matures at about an average age of 80 years, 
after which it gains in size, but with no further im- 
provement in quality, its further growth, being a 
mere accumulation of adipose, if I may use such 
a comparison. When fully developed the white oak 
is one of the largest and grandest of the entire forest 
tribe, and it is, of all the deciduous trees, about the 
most valuable for general purposes. In a wagon it 
furnishes the hubs, spokes, felloes and all of the 
running gear except the axles and the tongue, and 
it takes the lead in all other branches of wood manu- 
factures where special strength, solidity and durability 
are required, as in ships, car-building, cabinet ware, 
implements, &c, &c The natural forests of this 
supremely useful tree are, however, rapidly disappear- 
ing, and, if only on the ground of utility, its preser- 
vation and culture should be our very first care. 
Next in order comes the hickory (Garya). The 
hickory is exclusively an American tree, of many vari- 
eties, one or more of the several species being quite 
common in every State- of the Union. None of them, 
however, better merits cultivation than the shellbark, 
for wherever special elasticity is required, as in wagon 
axles, carriage spoke, hammer, pick and tool handles, 
&c, it stands without an equal, and in its growth 
it is as rapid as any of its kind. The timber is heavy, 
hard and elastic, anl is very durable, except when 
exposed to a foul or moist atmosphere, in which case 
it decays rapidly. It grows to the height of 60 or 
80 feet, with a diameter of 2 feet, and while young 
is exceedingly graceful and ornamental, so that it 
might well be cultivated for its beauty alone. For 
fuel its wood is by far the best in America, and its 
fruit is the " hickory nut " of commerce. The " thick 
shellbark " must not be confused with the species 
just desoribed. To identify the proper nut for planting 
I may mention that it is of a globular shape, some- 
what flattened, nearly pointless, with a thin, whitish 
shell, and a large kernel. The nut of the " thick shell- 
bark " is twice as large and has a sharp point at 
each end, the shell is thick, hard and of a yellowish 
tinge, while the kernel is very inferior. The leaf of 
the " shellbark " always consists of five leaflets, while 
the " thick shellbark" leaf has seven or nine. In this way 
the difference can be easily distinguished — not only 
in the seed, but in the youug trees as well. Hickory 
for timber should be grown uninterruptedly from the 
seed ; but it has been asserted that the transplanted 
tree will bear more and better quality of fruit. I 
will now pass on to the well-known ash (Fraximus). 
To the manufacturer of wagons and agricultural im- 
plements this valuable timber is of high importance. 
It is very durable, and unites lightness, strength and 
elasticity to such a degree that no other wood could 
properly replace it for wagon tongues, fork handles 
an I the like. It exhibits also a highly ornamental 
finish when used in floors, furniture, wainscoting and 
interior trimming of dwellings generally. Besides all 
this it is of high rank simply as fuel, and for all 
these multifarious purposes its consumption has so 
largely increai-ed, that the better grades are becom- 
ing very scarce and the price has advanced at least 
25 per cent, in the last 15 years. I venture to say 
that unless its cultivation is begun very 60ou, the 
present generation will see its last for practical uses 
