OF THE MANAGEMENT OF FOREST TREES. 
81 
would exceed the limits of this article to attempt to specify the trees best suited for the 
various soils of this country; but we advise those who are going to plant, to observe well 
the kinds which succeed best in their immediate locality. For want of this caution thou- 
sands of acres which might, by judicious management, have yielded ample profits, are now 
comparatively worthless. Instances are not wanting of lands planted by contract in the 
most indiscriminate and reckless manner ; no policy can be w^orse, and no system more to be 
7thly. Pruning Forest Trees. — Pruning is a most important operation of culture, having 
for its object the concentration of those energies which are inherent in plants, and their 
appropriation for some specific purpose. The object of the gardener is generally to 
produce the greatest amount of fruit-bearing wood in his trees ; but that of the forester is 
to obtain a straight clean stem, capable of yielding a considerable amount of available 
timber. When we consider the important functions which are performed by the leaves, it 
must be obvious that (to confer the greatest benefit) pruning must be a progressive opera- 
tion, as any sudden and severe denudation of the branches would destroy the balance 
between them and the roots. We would be emphatic upon pruning, in contradistinction to 
what is generally practised, which we designate rather as lopping — for such it is — when 
branches of one or more inches in diameter are chopped off by an axe, leaving a stump 
which dies, and ever remains a defect in the timber. 
We would recommend that all pruning should take place during the earlier years of 
growth, by the removal of a tier or two of branches in each season, with a sharp knife, in 
the spring of the year ; such slight wounds will soon be covered with bark, and leave no 
blemish in the wood. In addition to this, those side branches which are getting an undue 
ascendancy should have their extremities foreshortened. This, coupled with the removal 
of the weaker trees, so as to give light and air to every individual plant, will ensure results 
very different to what we commonly see. 
Whether we look to the garden, the farm, or the forest management, we find that 
nothing is gained by overcrowding the shoots and foliage of plants ; the battle is to the 
strongs but the weak perish. We would, therefore, make a rule of thinning the shoots of 
wood produced from stoolings for undergrowth, removing the smaller ones, and giving 
additional strength to those retained. 
Much mischief accrues to underwood from the prevalent custom of selling it in 
standing growth ; the consequences of which are, frequently, that it is cut by persons 
who use bad tools, and do not understand what they are doing ; jagged cuts are made, and 
the stoolings are not properly cut down. In consequence, they frequently become rotten, 
and every year produces a weaker growth. 
The best way to treat these high and neglected stoolings is to cut them over with a 
cross-cut saw, smoothing the cuts afterwards with the axe. It would surely be better that 
the forester should superintend the cuttnig himself, having it done in a workmanlike 
and proper manner, and that the wood so cut should be afterwards sold in lots. 
8thly. Thinning. — This, as vv'e have before remarked, is an operation which in almost all 
cases (if practised at all) is deferred too long. There is, perhaps, no more beautiful and 
striking instance of the orderly design, wisdom, and goodness of an all-pervading Providence 
than is evinced in the nice adjustment of the balance between the animal and vegetable 
kingdom. Under the action of light, plants decompose carbonic acid, giving off the oxygen, 
and appropriating the carbon to the formation of their various products ; while, on the 
other hand, oxygen is necessary to support the animal, who gives out in his turn the 
carbonic acid. But in dense shade and darkness this action of the leaves of plants is 
reversed, and no new solid matter is added to the system ; elongation and not growth takes 
place, the cellular system is distended, but with the crude sap. If such, then, are the 
incontrovertible laws which govern the growth of plants and trees, how erroneous, how 
empirical is the mode in which woods are managed ! 
It is not necessary to lay down rules with mathematical precision as to the distances 
at which trees should be left. Suffice it to say, that throughout the whole course of their 
progress, to ensure the healthy performance of the very important processes of respiration, 
VOL. I. — NO, III, M 
