BY SMOKE FROM PUBLIC WORKS. 19 



ramifying amongst the otliervvise exhausted earth, acquire a 

 stunted growth, and will produce impaired root action, unless 

 Nature's own and recuperative process, when removed by the 

 force of circumstances, is replaced by artificial means. 



ON THINNING PLANTATIONS AS APPLICAELE IN 

 PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



By Christopher Young Michie, Forester, Ciilleu House, Cullen. 



[Premium — Five Sovereigns.'] 



'Practical forestry, I consider, may be defined as signifying the 

 growing of the greatest quantity of the most valua1)le wood or 

 timber, upon the smallest piece of ground, in the shortest period 

 of time. 



To grow a large quantity of wood is a very desirable thing, 

 but the operations of forestry may and often are so conducted as 

 to increase the quantity at the expense of the quality. We have 

 all seen large bulky trees, so coarse and knotty and open in the- 

 grain, as to be unfit for almost anything. Scots fir, for example, 

 grown on rich loam, or on certain descriptions of moss soil, is of 

 such a rapid growth as to render the wood useless for anything 

 except fuel. (Quantity of wood is therefore no index to good 

 forestry, but when combined with quality, the case is essentially 

 altered. The largest and best are qualities sought for in a tree, 

 and 1 hope to show how they are to l)e produced. 



The size and quality of trees are in themselves very good, 

 but wood as well as gold may be bought too dear, or cost too 

 much, and if gold may be bought too dear, wood may also be 

 grown at too great expense ; and when this is the case, prac- 

 tical forestry is not successfully carried out. One thing above 

 most others very materially influences the value of wood, that is 

 tlie cost or value of the ground it occupies during its period of 

 growth. If the ground, for example, at 10s. per acre can be 

 •made to grow as much timber of equal quality as another acre 

 can at 15s., it must appear evident that the former is the most 

 profitable, and only such should be planted. As certain de- 

 scriptions of ground, however, grow certain sj)ecies of trees better 

 than others, an important consideration here arises as to what 

 species of trees to plant upon the different kinds of soil. The 

 importance of this matter is paramount, because, in the first 

 place, when once the trees are planted they in a sense grow 

 of themselves, unaided by man. Hence it becomes every 

 planter's duty to see well to it that only suitalile trees are 

 planted. 



