OF FOREST-TREES

• 175

C H A P. II.

Of PRUNING.

There can nothing certainly be more necefsary, in order to pruning, chapthan the knowledge of the course and nature of the. sap,, which not beingas yet so universally agreed on, after innumerable trials and experiments,leads our arborators into many errors and mistakes. I have in this forest-work occasionally recited the various opinions of several, leaving themto the.determination of the learned and judicious, as a considerable partof Natural Philosophy ; Dr. Grew, Malpighius, De la Quinteny, andwhat is found dispersed in the Philosophical Transactions by our PlantAnatomists; without charging this chapter with repetitions. And thesame I have done likewise as to Astrological Observations, Positions of theStars, and Planetary Configurations, Exhalations, and Dominant Power;though, incompliance to custom, I now and then forbear to abdicate ourcountry planter’s Goddefs; contenting myself with the wholesomenefsof the air we breathe in, and the goodnefs of the soil. I shall therefore,in the first place, speak of the manual operation of pruning, and otherinstructions as they afterwards occur. t

PUTATIO, or Pruning, is the purgation of trees in general from whatis superfluous. The .antients found such benefit in pruning, that theyfeigned a Goddefs presided over it, as Arnobius tells us : and, in truth,it is in the discreet performance of this work, that the improvementof our timber and woods does as much consist, as in any thing whatso-ever. A skilful planter should therefore be early, at this work.

It is a misery to see how our fairest trees are defaced and mangled byunskilful wood-men and mischievous borderers, who go always armedwith short hand-bills, hacking and chopping off all that comes in theirway ; by which our trees are made full of knots, stubs, boils, cankers,and deformed bunches, to their utter destruction. Good husbandsshould be ashamed of it; though I would have no woodman pretend tobe without all his necefsary furniture, when he goes about this work;which I, once for all, reckon to be the hand-bill, hatchet, hook, hand-Uohanc II. 7 j