Part IV.] 
PRUNING AND THINNING. 
221 
have been cut off in consequence of being shat¬ 
tered by wind, their ends should be painted, and, 
if they crack, stopped with putty till the wound 
is healed over. 
To rear first-rate timber, I think the whole 
surface of the ground should be canopied over 
with the heads. This canopy should, by gra¬ 
dual and annual pruning, be raised to the great¬ 
est possible height, and by gradual and annual 
thinning be supported by the fewest possible 
stems. I think mixed woods of coppice and 
timber bad : because if the trees are close 
enough to grow clean, even timber, they will 
destroy the coppice-wood ; and if they are far 
enough apart to allow under-growth, they will 
have large side-branches and irregular stems. 
It is true that the growth of coppice-wood, 
by killing all side-branches, is the great na¬ 
tural pruner, and gives clean stems to a certain 
height; but as this is over-done in the youth of 
the plant, as soon as a coppice-wood or hedge- 
row-tree emancipates itself from the under¬ 
growth it bursts forth hydra-headed, and be¬ 
comes flat-topped. The judicious saw should 
remedy this. 
It is a great mistake of De Candolle, Rich¬ 
ard, and other French writers, to lay down the 
That a branch¬ 
less stem is a 
natural attri- 
