rather inducing the branches, after the tree has acquired suffi cient height, to spread out into a horizontal top, is in harmony with and only humouring the natural disposition of trees, and is therefore both seemly and of easy practice. The perfection of naval forest economy would consist in superadding (according to instructions to be given in training of ship-timbers) a top of which every branch is a valuable bend or knee, though, in consequence of the situation, the timber will be fragile, and of light, porous texture."

"We admit that a tree becomes more stemmy by being repeatedly pruned up. We admit that, on removal of the lower branches, the upper part of the stem may have, for a few seasons, larger annual circles; but the annual circles will be diminished in thickness in a much greater proportion on the lower part of the stem. We admit, that the timber, from being deposited in a clean lengthened cylinder, becomes far more useful, there being less redundant matter than when scattered out into stemmy branches, to which disposition trees in open situation often incline, especially if not transplanted when small plants, but to which they are, nevertheless, much more disposed, under the common mode of pruning up at an early stage of their growth, than when left to themselves. We admit, that trees, by pruning, raised to lengthened stem, and thence performing less assimilation, partly compensate for this less assimilation, for some time, by making more stem deposite, in proportion to the other deposite, which extends the parts more immediately necessary to new formation-the roots and twigs; but the deficiency of productory parts soon reacts, to diminish the amount of all the new products. We admit, also, that pruning in the first place impedes formation of flower-buds, and will sometimes thus prevent exhaustion of trees by seeding, which is so prejudicial both to the quality and quantity of the new wood-deposite; but the consequent greater length of stem, greater exposure to evaporation, constriction of bark, diminished formation of rooting, and slenderer connecting tubes between leaf and roots, all tend subsequently to promote formation of flower-buds, although the removal of the lower branches may for a few seasons have served to prevent this. We therefore consider pruning, excepting in a very slight degree, to guide to one leader, and to re

move the sickly, lower, moss-covered branches a few seasons earlier than they would have dropped off in the common course of decay, to be generally preventive of quantity of wood deposite, even of common marketable timber in a tree in any considerable number of years, although pruning to a greater degree is often necessary in hard wood, when fine clean timber is required," page 300 to 302. See further observations on pruning in "Naval Timber and Arboriculture."

It may, after all, be observed, that Mr Gavin Cree's troublesome and tedious annual system of pruning and mine differ only in regard to time. To procure clean timber, pruning up must be practised sooner or later, wherever the closeness of woods does not smother the lower branches. He, apparently unconscious that the strong extension of the rooting depends in a particular manner on the lower branching, and that the removal of the lower branches tends to increase the proportional size of the 'upper, and to derange the balance of the system of the tree, (facts which, I believe, have never before been pointed out) prunes up at an early period, which renders the lower part of the stem very clean timber, and the upper part coarse, and often destroys the power of extension to great timber. I defer pruning-up till the tree has acquired nearly its ultimate height, and has established a rooting and strength of constitution sufficient to swell out the cleared stem to great timber; which, at the same time, will be produced as equably clean as it is possible for the nature of a plant to admit.

[We willingly afford to Mr Matthew an opportunity of explaining his principles of pruning. The subject deserves all the investigation which can be bestowed upon it by intelligent men. Mr Matthew states correctly the practice so fully explained in our last Number by Mr Gavin Cree. This consists in merely shortening the branches during the first stages of growth, so as to promote the ascendancy of the leading shoot, and produce the growth of the upright stem, without at the same time depriving the tree more than is necessary of its lateral branches and leaves. When the tree has reached 15 feet in height, the process of close pruning commences. This is done by cutting off, each year, the lowest tier of branches, and no more. operation being gradual, it is performed with the least violence

The

to the tree, while it effects one of the main purposes of prun ing-forest-trees-the obtaining as large a length of clean stem as the nature and vigour of the tree will allow. The principle appears to us to be perfectly sound, and the practice simple. Mr Matthew proposes to leave the lower branches to assist the tree in forming roots. Now, granting his hypothesis, that the lower branches contribute more than the higher to the forming of roots,-still, by leaving the lower branches, we deprive ourselves of the very object aimed at in clearing the trunk at all. Nearly all the valuable part of the timber of common trees is in the trunk, and it is important to get as much of this as possible free of knots and protuberances. Mr Pontey had long ago shown the effect of branches in forming knots in the tree, and proposes, accordingly, close pruning of the stem as the means of forming useful timber. The system proposed by Mr Cree, and long practised by him with success, while it attains the object proposed by Pontey, has regard to the no less important one of preserving the health of the tree. We conceive that it combines better these two objects, than the system of leaving the lower branches untouched. In taking off the lower branches before the higher, we imitate Nature, for we find that it is the lower branches that always first fall off during the growth of the tree.

For these reasons, we give the decided preference to the simple practice of Mr Cree, and recommend it in the strongest manner to the attention of planters.-EDIT.]

ON A SUPPOSED DISEASE IN CATTLE, CALLED THE TAIL-SLIP. By Mr DICK, Veterinary Surgeon, Edinburgh.

Ir is an acknowledged fact, that ignorance is the occasion of many absurdities; and the more abstruse and difficult the subject is, the more readily will such ignorance be displayed by those who are mere pretenders.

But of all the subjects with which the uninitiated interfere, and of which they make displays of their ignorance, there is none so common as in that of medicine, whether as it is applied to the human species or the lower animals. Upon the latter, however, the empiric is allowed a greater scope than upon the former, because the patient is never able to tell, with an audible voice,

(and the empiric can understand no other, if he can even understand that) the situation of the part affected. The diseases of animals have not been sufficiently studied, and the treatment of their maladies is therefore generally left to the care of their ordinary attendants: need we then be surprised if we find diseases of the greatest danger overlooked in some instances, while imaginary ones are conjured into view in others? And such is the fact. For although the veterinary surgeon will tell you that he never finds a case of hypochondriasm amongst his patients, he has sometimes to prescribe for that disease in the owners themselves. But while the rage for quackery exists in so great a degree in the treatment of the diseases of man, and more so of horses, still, from the great attention which has been paid to the diseases of the human subject, and the increasing attention which the diseases of that noblest of animals, the horse, continues to receive, many ignorant prejudices have been overcome. As little attention has, however, been paid to the diseases of cattle, or at least few works have been communicated to the public on the subject, a wider and a wilder range may be expected to be found amongst them for the pretensions and practice of ignorance and quackery.

Of the vast train of absurdities and prejudices which have been propagated, there is perhaps none which it will be of greater use to expose, than the errors connected with what is called the Tail-slip, or Tail-ill, in cattle.

If a cow or ox become affected with a chronic disease of any of the internal organs,-with loss of appetite,-of flesh,-of vigour, or of strength, the tail is examined, and the disease is pronounced to be the tail-slip. Are the secretions of the lactiferous glands diminished or suspended-the disease arises from the tail-slip: has paralysis of the extremities commenced-it is produced by the tail-slip is the animal hide-bound-it is all the effect of the tailslip: nay, even if the cow has been witched, it is known by the tail-slip. Let us, then, inquire into the progress or nature of this disease. We are informed that the disease affects the tail; that unless something is done, it soon passes along the cow's tail to the back, and the animal must then lose the use of her legs; she falls off in her appetite, the milk ceases to flow, and she will soon die, unless some remedy is applied for the tail-slip. And what is

that remedy? Why, cut off the cow's tail, to be sure, and you then get rid of the disease and the part affected. Some, however, less cruel or more scientific in their treatment, simply make an incision into the under surface, allow the wound to bleed freely, and then bind up the part, filling the wound with a mixture of tar, salt, &c.

But in some parts of the country, others, not content with this treatment, and supposing that in all these cases there is witchcraft, besides the cutting and dressing, have recourse to some charm. This consists commonly in binding on a small piece of the rowan-tree to the extremity of the tail, and making a black cat pass three times round the cow's body, over her back and under her belly, which (if it happen to be a strange cat, as is often the case, from the necessity of the colour being black) so enrages the cat, that she mews and scratches with all the fury to which she is so easily excited, until she escapes from the hands of the necromancers, leaving them convinced that the devil has got into the cat; while the cow evinces sufficient proof, by the manner she is roused, that, by the madness of the operation, the cat's claws, and the cutting of her tail, she is now sufficiently convinced that the devil is either in the cat or her tormentors.

I have been told of cases of this disease, in which the extremity of the tail has come away in a person's hand. I have been told, too, of many striking cures performed by cutting the tail, and these by persons upon whose veracity and candour I could place complete reliance, and to whose opinion upon any other subject I would be inclined to pay the greatest deference. I do not indeed mean to deny, that the tail of a cow or an ox may become affected with disease, as well as other parts of the body; but this I will advance, that of all the cases I have been shown of what is termed Tail-ill, I have never yet been able to discover any marked alteration in the parts, or any unnatural appearance, as I shall afterwards endeavour to show.

The disease, in ordinary cases, is said to consist in a softening of the bones about the extremity of the tail (mollities ossium), and is to be distinguished by the point of the tail being easily doubled back upon itself, and having, at this doubling, a soft and rather a crepitating kind of feel; but let us inquire what is the healthy state of this organ, and what is its use, before we