1886.] THE USES OF THE THICKET. 751 



THE USES OF THE THICKET. 



ATHICKl'^T is a mass of wood, generally youn^ wood, ;,Mo\viii'^ 

 so close together that the individual trees are luimpered in 

 their sideward extension. The only kind of thicket requiring 

 mention in systematic forestry occurs in young woods aging between 

 ten and about thirty years. This restricted sense will Ije adopted 

 in the following remarks. V>y the term thicket we shall accordingly 

 understand a stage in the progress of young woods in which the 

 branches of neighbouring trees overlap one another and interlace. 



Some readers will probably not agree with the view that the thicket 

 is very useful in the rearing of timber. It may, however, be reason- 

 ably argued that all young woods ought to be allowed to pass 

 through the thicket stage — that the thicket is indispensable in 

 economic forestry. In support of this proposition, three special 

 uses of the thicket will be advanced. 



But first let us glance briefly at some alternative methods for 

 checking the side growth of trees and preventing them running too 

 much to branches. These are chiefly artificial pruning with a sharp 

 instrument, and the ingenious device of disbudding with the fingers. 

 These methods seem to give complete satisfaction to many foresters 

 and proprietors in Britain, so much so that they have completely 

 lost sight of the cultural advantages of the thicket. But, even if 

 thorough pruning and disbudding could thoroughly discharge all the 

 cultural functions of the thicket, it would still be a question requir- 

 ing demonstration, how these methods are to be applied on a large 

 scale. 



It cannot be too often repeated that forestry — economic forestry 

 — must work on a large scale and with the utmost economy. Any 

 method which will not satisfy the test of application on a large 

 scale — say in a forest of about five thousand acres — does not belong 

 properly to economic forestry. Disbudding and careful priming 

 may be very applicable to the woods around a mansion-house ; but 

 even there, will they not be more thoroughly applied to the trees 

 along the outer margins of plantations and to trees in the immediate 

 vicinity of the house? There is the further danger in spending such 

 labour on young trees, that some of the work may be lost. How 

 are we to know that any particular young tree will not be cut 

 down in a year or two, at the next thinning ? Suppose for the 

 sake of argument that we have just thinned and have to prune ton 

 acres of young wood. It may very well happen that the next 

 thinning will remove three thousand of these young trees in five 

 years' time. Now, if we go carefuUy over every tree on this area, 



