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 elFectually 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 covered with trees in 
Britain may be considered as neglected or mismanaged. The artifi¬ 
cial strips and clumps have generally never been thinned or pruned; 
and the natural woods, and copse woods, improperly thinned or cut 
over. 
It is no idle speculation to look forward to what may be the value 
of fifty acres of trees of thirty years growth, nor to what the thinnings 
of the plantations may produee in the interim; and it will be found 
that poor land is converted by these means to a good pui'pose, 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 Register, 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 
Clutter, is to be directed, not directly, but in a sloping direction, against 
the boughs and branches of trees 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 ^vide, but 
might be made (‘ither hu’ger or smaller; it is welded to a socket about 
