'd to cut off, it were safe to sear with an hot
iron, and prevent the danger of bleeding, to which they are obnoxious
even to destruction, though unseen, and unheeded: Neither may you
disbranch them, but with great caution, as about March, or before, or
else in September, and then 'tis best to prune up the side-branches
close to the trunk, cutting off all that are above a year old; if you
suffer them too long, they grow too big, and the cicatrice will be more
apt to spend the tree in gum; upon which accident, I advise you to rub
over their wounds with a mixture of cow-dung; the neglect of this cost
me dear, so apt are they to spend their gum. Indeed, the fir and pine
seldom out-live their being lopp'd. Some advise us to break the shells
of pines to facilitate their delivery, and I have essay'd, but to my
loss; nature does obstetricate, and do that office of her self, when it
is the proper season; neither does this preparation at all prevent those
which are so buried, whilst their hard integuments protect them both
from rotting, and the vermin.

_Pinastes_, the domestic pine grows very well with us, both in mountains
and plains; but the _pinaster_, or wilder (of which are four sorts) best
for walks; _pulcherrima in hortis_, (as already we have said) because it
grows tall and proud, maintaining their branches at the sides, which the
other pine does less frequently. There is in New-England, a very broad
pine, which increases to a wonderful bulk and magnitude, insomuch as
large canoos have been excavated out of the body of it, without any
addition. But beside these large and gigantick pines, there is the
spinet, with sharp thick bristles, yielding a rosin or liquor odorous,
and useful in carpentary-work.

8. The fir grows tallest, being planted reasonable close together; but
suffers nothing to thrive under them. The pine not so inhospitable; for
(by Pliny's good leave) it may be sown with any tree, all things growing
well under its shade, and excellent in woods; hence Claudian,

The friendly pine the mighty oak invites.{229:1}

9. They both affect the cold, high, and rocky grounds, _abies in
montibus altis_: Those yet which grow on the more southern, and less
expos'd quarters, a little visited with the beams of the sun, are found
to thrive beyond the other, and to afford better timber; and this was
observed long since by Vitruvius of the _infernates_ (as he calls them)
in comparison with the _supernates_, which growi