ON PRUNING FOREST TREES. 699 
saw or axe at the aawpit ; I thought by this time every gardener 
and forester in the kingdom, had known how to renovate a poor 
stunted tree, or an old thorn hedge ; my way is to cut them off close 
to the ground, depriving them of all their millions oi mouths ; mouths 
did I say ? I not only cut off the mouths, hut the head, neck, shoul- 
ders, and body, yet the roots no-wise daunted by the loss of such 
vital parts, throw up fresh trunks, heads, and mouths too. 
Mr. Blakie, of Holkham, says very wisely, that " the young 
wood, &c. never unites vvith the saw or hook -marks of |the amputated 
limb ;" pray, did any gardener ever expect it would ? Wood cut off 
will never unite with wood, or even bark with bark ; but the sap and 
alburnum will unite and form fresh wood, and bark over the wound, 
which if small as in a graft of one year, will never be perceived when 
the tree is full grown, so neither will the wound occasioned by cut- 
ting off a branch one inch in diametei", from a tree of four inches, be 
any blemish when the trunk has swelled to the diameter of four feet- 
Mr. Blakie thinks, that knots grow out and shell off; he is mistaken, 
branches or knots proceed direct from the centre, and continue to in- 
crease till they die, the lower branches die first, being smallest, and 
growing under the droppings and shade of the upper ones : hence the 
butt end of the tree is more valuable than the upper end ; such self- 
prmied butt ends are the fine grained balks we get from America, 
&c. : but the Americans inform us, that scarcely one tree in a hun- 
dred in their natural forests is fit for exportation, they sell only the 
very best timber, and use the inferior for local purposes, like the 
poor Irish farmeis, and I may add the poor English ones too, who 
sell all their best goods, and live themselves on the unsaleable refuse ! 
But to return, though young wood will not unite with rotten wood, 
neither with a live toad, nor yet with a great brag -nail, yet I have 
found fine clear planks laid round all three ; but a few years ago, I 
found a large nail in nearly the heart of an oak tree, the tree itself 
was little the worse, but the saw was much damaged. But to con- 
clude, I maintain, that if a tree be well pruned whilst young, you 
will find neither toads, nails, or rotten wood in it. 
John Howden. 
March nth, 1832. 
