254 Improved Pruning-Hook. 
The sap of a tree may be considered as the raw material furnished 
by nature; and man, the manufacturer, who moulds it into the form 
most useful for his purpose. A moderate quantity of leaves and 
small wood is necessary to every tree ; but all above that quantity are of 
no use to the plant, and of little value to its owner. Strength is gained 
as effectually by a few branches dispersed about the stem to force a 
head, as by many. Opening a plantation too much at once is a sure 
way to destroy its health and vigour. Though it has been more or 
less fashionable for more than a century to form plantations, yet it 
has also been as generally the custom to neglect their future culture, 
that by far the greater proportion of the surface co^'ered with trees in 
Britain may be considered as neglected or mismanaged. The artifi- 
cial strips and clumps haAe generally ne^er been thinned or pruned ; 
and the natural woods, and copse \\oods, improperly thinned or cut 
over. 
It is no idle speculation to look forward to ^hat may be the value 
of fiftj' acres of trees of thirty years growth, nor to what the thinnings 
of the plantations may produce in the interim ; and it will be found 
that poor land is converted by these means to a good pui-jiose, and at 
a trifling expense. Wishing you success, 
I am, &c. &c. 
Ruthen, Oct. 20, 1831. An Arborist. 
P. S. Would not a short notice of the Oak, Larch, &c. be a plea- 
sing variety in your useful work ? 
Article V. — Description of an Improved Pruning-Hook, 
invented by Mr, John Howden. 
Gentlemen, 
I HAVE at length received your Horticultural Registei*, four 
numbers at once; and as I wish not only to be a Subscriber but also 
a Contributor, the first article I intend giving you shall be a Cutter! 
— don't be alarmed. Gents, T don't mean to cut you,— the edge of my 
Cutter, is to be directed, not directly, but in a sloping direction, against 
the boughs and branches of ti-ees and hedges. 
I am fond of pruning young trees well, and I like to have a good 
tool, or pruning-hook ; 1 have now got one made to my mind, which 
you may call "Howden's Patent Hedge-bill."' Our blacksmith makes 
them of old carriage-springs, but the Sheffield edge-tool makers might 
temper them much better. They are something in the form of a 
capital S, [fig. 31.] and on all sides "sharper than any two-edged 
sword." The blade is twelve inches long, by three inches wide, but 
might be made either larger oi- smaller: it is welded to a socket about 
