58 
ON THE MANAGEMENT 
At the pruning feafon, therefore, make choice of fuch rtioots 
as come Under the above defcription, cut them to any conve- 
nient length, and put them into pretty large pots filled with 
light 
ferved a pith in young vigorous fhoots of this plant that has meafured above five- 
eighths of an inch diameter; and here it may be deemed w'orthy of obfervation to 
remark, that the pith of fuch fhoots decreafes in proportion as the wood becomes 
more mature, and its place occupied and filled with new wood, which fhows that 
wood grows internally as well as externally ; a confideration from hence will en- 
able us to folve a certain phaenomenon in foreft trees. It is obfervable that the 
under branches of the oak and other foreft trees are conftantly in a ftate of decay, 
and efpecially in negledled woods of large trees where they ftand near together. 
And the cuftom has been in many places, though a very injudicious one, to cut 
off thofe dead branches even with the bole of the tree. But now fuppofe that a 
dead branch of three, four, or more inches diameter happens to ftand inclining to 
a perpendicular diredlion, (which is frequently the cafe) and this be cut off in the 
above manner, it generally proves extremely injurfous, by caufing a material de- 
feat : For the bark of the tree foon rifts round the bafe of the ftump, and thereby 
forms a kind of bafon to receive the falling rain ; and thus the remaining dead wood 
(for the lower part of the branch inclofed in the tree dies alfo to a confiderable 
depth) is foon brought into a ftate of decay, which, by being infectious, becomes 
general, and often terminates in the almoft entire deftrudion of the tree. Let us 
now conceive a branch of the above defcription left to nature, and obferve the con- 
fequence. Her efforts, as in critical cafes of the human body, will fometimes 
perform what the moft eminent (kill and niceft art cannot accomplifti. The upper 
part of the branch foon (decays, and naturally falls off firft ; one may then really 
conceive the remaining part to be as a peg or wooden pin, fhapen exacftly, and fit- 
ting and filling up the wounded part for the prefervation of the tree. Here it 
fhould be underftood, for the upper part of this imaginary pin to extend beyond 
the 
