374 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



plants when planted as to their size, roots, and constitutional vigor 

 at the time of planting; as also the intimate nature of the soil, 

 subsoil and local climate. In the oak, after the first fifty or sixty 

 years' growth, the annual rate of increase of the diameter dimin- 

 ishes greatly. 



In order to have at all times the most convenient as well as the 

 most pleasant access to the interior of the plantation, rides or 

 broad drives should be marked out and left implanted. 



CHAP. V. 



Of the Culture of Plantations. 



The judicious culture of plantations is a point of the last im- 

 portance to secure a full return of profits from the capital expend- 

 ed in their formation, as well as for every other advantage that 

 judicious planting confers ; for let the care and skill employed in 

 their formation have been ever so great, if the proper culture be 

 not continued from the period of planting to maturity of growth, 

 disappointment in obtaining the effects of wood, and loss of profits 

 will be the certain results. The numerous instances to be seen 

 almost every where of the bad effects resulting from the neglect 

 of judicious pruning and thinning of the trees of plantations, and 

 the great loss caused thereby to the proprietors, evince fully the 

 importance of this branch of the subject, which embraces the fol- 

 lowing points: 1st. Culture of the soil. 2d. Pruning, 3d. 

 Thinning. 



First. The culture of a trenched soil of a newly formed plan- 

 tation, consists in keeping the surface clean of weeds until the 

 shade of the trees prevents their growth. It is true that these 

 weeds take a portion of nourishment from the soil, but from what 

 was before stated regarding the food supplied to the plants by the 

 soil, it is clear that the growth of herbaceous weeds can injure 

 but little, if in any degree, the growth of forest trees. When 



