of Growing Timler Trees. 359 



that another acre produces which increases after th& rate of 

 Table VII., and little more than one-third of another, in- 

 creasing after the rate of Table VIII. in the same time. 



In planting with a view to profit, the first object is a long, 

 straight, and clear stem. This is most certainly and speedily- 

 obtained by thick planting at first, and not thinning too 

 soon. A kind of competition among the trees is thereby 

 occasioned, each struggling, as it were, to outgrow its neighr 

 bour, in search of light, heat, air, and moisture. 



This competition must, however, be judiciously mode- 

 rated by timely thinning 5 always keeping the trees suffi- 

 ciently strong in the stem. If they be suffered to stand some 

 years too near each other, their stems will become weak, and 

 bend under their small tops when thinned. Where this has 

 taken place in only a small degree, they will make but little 

 progress for some years afterwards. 



By the time the trees have advanced to 24 or 30 feet high 

 this competition should cease, if they are intended to be cut 

 down at or before 60 years of age, and they should then be 

 encouraged to extend their tops more in width than in 

 height, strong side branches being apparently quite as con- 

 ducive as the leading shoot, to the vigorous growth of the 

 bole below them. After this period, the best rule for thinning 

 will probably be, to leave a clear space around the top of 

 each tree, in which the branches may extend themselves 

 without obstruction. A tree whose top is 20 feet diameter, 

 receives four times the benefit from air, rain, and dew, as 

 another does whose top is only ten. feet diameter. 



The trees in the interior of young woods are smaller in 

 their boles than the exterior trees. And in a fine oak wood, 

 of about 40 acres, divided into squares by several avenues 

 or ridings crossing each other at right angles, I observed the 

 rows of trees next the avenues much thicker in their boles 

 than the trees in the interior of the squares ; owing, no 

 doubt, to their having more and larger branches in conse- 

 quence of their having more room, although it is only on 

 one side. 



Being too parsimonious of ground seems to me a great 

 and very general error. If the same number of trees of 32 



Z 4 feet 



