Part IV.] 
PRUNING AND THINNING. 
223 
pine accident, not nature, produces the branch¬ 
less stem. Plant an oak in your kitchen-garden, 
and clear it of all neighbouring growth ; that is, 
shield the tree from accident, let nature alone, 
let the tree have perfect shelter, perfect soil, and 
perfect room. So far from growing with a 
branchless stem, its lower boughs shall on all 
sides, along the very ground, in length make a 
good race with its leader. What, then, are the 
natural, or rather accidental, pruners ? What 
primers make the tall, clean stem valuable as 
timber? They are three in number, — coppice- 
wood, cattle, or neighbouring trees. These are 
nature’s journeymen-pruners, and most abomi¬ 
nable bunglers they are. They follow their 
mistress’s plan, and prune by killing the 
branches, which, till they rot off, are inclosed 
in the stem, and form disunited or movable 
knots. If accident may prune, why may not 
art ? But if art and the saw are not allowed to 
do this pruning, they should at least assist, and 
cut off the boughs as they are killed by neigh¬ 
bouring trees. I only talk here in reference to 
the senseless clamour against pruning — of 
whether pruning is good or bad for the tree, 
and for the timber; not of whether it would 
pay or not. That must depend on a variety 
