On Pruning Forest Plantations. 263 
In managing plantations, the object is to give at the same time a 
due proportion of shelter and of air. In many case?, plantations which 
have been well attended to, in respect to enclosing, draining, and pro- 
perly planting, have thriven well for the first twelve or fifteen years ; 
yet in fifteen years more, the forest trees have been ruined by allowing 
the Scotch Fir and Larch, (which had been judiciously planted for 
shelter) to remain for twenty-five or thirty years. The Oak, the Ash, 
the Elm, and the Sycamore, have been partly destroyed, and what 
remain, are tor want of air, so drawn up, and left in such a debilitated 
state, that though their oppressors are at length removed, they cannot 
support themselves; and the few tliat can stand, from the sudden 
transition which they have undergone, immediately stagnate, and be- 
come overgrown with moss. 
Too gi-eat a partialitj' for ti'ees, often occasions an error, which 
defeats the object of the planter and improver. It is as necessary to 
thin and prune trees judiciously, as to plant them with care and judg- 
ment ; and yet it too often happens, that those who are extremely fond 
of planting, cannot reconcile it to their taste or judgment, to cut away 
trees that absolutely injure their plantations, and eventually defeat their 
progressive improvement. Surely no person can dispute, that a grove 
or plantation, consisting of trees properly furnished with branches, 
and rich foliage, is not a more beautiful and pleasing object, than if 
such trees presented an unsightly appearance of half-dead and naked 
stems. Nor is it to be supposed that trees crowded together, and 
robbing eacli other of support, and of the invigorating power of the sun 
and air, can arrive at a profitable growth. It is more absurd to be 
tenacious of cutting away young trees, when necessary, than it is re- 
prehensible not to plant them, when it may be done with advantage. 
The progressive works of thinning and pruning demand a skilful, 
and if possible, a master's hand. All trees are patient of the knife. 
Many pruners, from an apprehension of injuring the stem of a tree 
by cutting the branches too close, leave stumps, over which the bark 
can \nth difiicult}', if ever, unite : they should undoubtedly be cut quite 
close and smooth. If even the bark did receive a slight injury, it 
would be of triflmg consequence compared to leaving a dead stump. 
From ignorance of the bad effects, or fi'om want of attention, too 
many pruners cut off a number of branches at once, instead of remo- 
ving annually not less than three, or more than five, of the largest and 
strongest fi"om every tree, always beginning at the top. 
The practice should decidedly be condemned of cutting off large 
limbs, to improve the timber; we may daily see the deplorable effects 
of it ; as the trees exhibit symptoms of speedy decaj', the stems being 
like wells full of water and rotten wood, into which you could thruijt a 
stick from the \\ound to the ground. 
