598 IMPROVEMENT OF PLANTATIONS. 
It should however he recollected, that we say nothing against the 
operations which suit man's convenience ; neither do we impugn his 
right to prune, train, or decorticate his trees; we merely require 
that facts, and not false notions be permitted to guide the judgment; 
and therefore, we observe, that if it be the planters 's object to let his 
trees gain strength, to obtain vigorous, healthy growth, and robust 
old age, the system of pruning out healthy sound wood, ought to be 
abandoned. If, on the contrary', figure, early maturity, and fruit- 
bearing be the cliief desiderata, pruning and its concomitant oper- 
ations must, and ought to be persisted in. The simple facts of the 
case may, I think, be condensed in a few lines, and I offer the 
remarks which follow to the candid consideration of every philoso- 
phical observer of nature. 
By pruning and training we indeed educate the tree, and make 
it subservient to our will; we place it in an unnatural position, 
spread it abroad, expand and depress its boughs and branches ; nay, 
we produce an appearance of growth, and expansion of parts by the 
operations of the knife ; for we compel nature to make attempts at 
self-preservation by a precocious development of those buds which, 
for a time, or even a long jieriod of years, might otherwise remain 
dormant in the stems ; but all these are processes of exhaustion, and 
not of energy. 
The consequences prove this to be the fact, because fertility is 
the invariable result; and fruit-bearing is the constant attendant 
upon, as well as the certain effect of, whatever tends to check vigor- 
ous or luxuriant growth. We gain fruit, but abate the vis vitce ; 
we induce precocity, but shorten life : hence, I consider loppings 
and prunings of every kind to be injurious, where duration of life 
and bulk of timber are the objects. Let us not mislead our judg- 
ments, but rather acknowledge facts : a tree, I repeat, is not bene- 
fitted by prunings, but its fertility, the final object of its being, is 
doubtless accelerated ; and therefore, whenever we prune or disbud 
fruit-bearing trees, we do it expressly to obtain fruit-buds within 
certain prescribed limits, and we gain our ^ends. But let us not be 
so unphilosophical as to suppose that we thereby improve the 
strength and vitality of the tree. 
With these remarks I conclude this series of papers ; and I trust 
that the kindness and good spirit of the far greater number of your 
readers will induce them to appreciate and justify my motives. 
G. I. T. 
Mo'i 28, 1832 
