Pruning Tools
Timely and judicious thinning should never be neglected, but it is the over-thinning, whereby branches and knotty trunks are produced and the supposed need for pruning follows, that I wish to deprecate and entirely dissent from. Grow your timber trees so thickly on the ground that the stems are induced to become straight, clean and branchless for the greater part of their height, and on no account admit sufficient light and air to cause the lower branches to be retained intact, or, in other words, at all times retain an unbroken leaf canopy. The necessity for pruning will then be entirely done away with, and a more valuable class of timber produced. The losses sustained through injudicious planting and the unnecessary and ruinous practice of pruning have taught a lesson that is fraught with good for the tree planter of the future.
When Pruning is Admissible.—There are a few cases, however, where pruning is quite justifiable, and where the abuse of a system should furnish no argument against its legitimate use. Hedgerow and field timber, for the sake of the live fences, the grass, or the grain crop in the vicinity, may require attention in the way of judicious pruning.
Again, pruning is sometimes a necessity where standard trees are grown in conjunction with coppice wood, as by shortening the lower branches the undergrowth in consequence becomes much improved. In the case of town trees, too, where it is necessary to restrict the spread of branches, pruning is resorted to, as also with old and heavy-headed elms and other trees in our parks and public gardens.
Pruning Live Branches.—In and around London, as well as many other large centres of industry, the hacking and hewing—pruning we cannot call it—to which trees are subjected is barbarous in the extreme, and calls for the strongest denunciation. To annually prune and elbow in such noble forest trees as the lime and plane, in order that the restricted growth may render them suitable for the cramped positions in which they have been unwisely planted, is little short of vandalism. The lime and plane, perhaps, suffer most in this way, for as soon as they have overgrown the allotted space an annual system of pruning back the branches is resorted to, the result being great mop-headed protuberances at the points where amputation took place, which not only rob the tree of its graceful natural appearance, but render it susceptible to disease and insect pests. There is no need to specialize cases where this most objectionable system is carried out, for a walk around our squares and gardens will unfortunately reveal how prevalent is the maltreatment of trees in the way of pruning. There might be some excuse for planting our noblest forest trees in cramped and unsuitable positions were there no other species of smaller growth that would take their place, but the Pyrus, Cratægus, dwarf Acacia, Mulberry, Catalpa and Sumach surely give us sufficient scope for choosing trees of restricted growth for confined positions and so do away with the barbarous system of pruning which the use of large-growing species necessitates.