290 On the Planting of Forest-Trees. 



half of the entire height of the tree. With this proportion, trees 

 of all kinds will maintain a vigorous growth, and produce ulti- 

 mately fine timber. If the first pruning has been deferred too 

 long, it is not prudent to pursue it up to the prescribed point at 

 once, but to do it in two successive years, which will prevent the 

 tree from throwing out numerous side-shoots, which it is apt to 

 do when too many branches are removed at once. If young trees 

 stand so near together as to prevent each other from having a free 

 scope for the growth of their heads, the redundant trees should 

 be timely removed ; and this must be repeated in after-years as 

 the heads require a wider space. These directions will apply to 

 all deciduous trees, whether standing in hedgerows, coppices, or 

 larger woods. The most proper season for pruning is during the 

 winter months to the end of February. The commencement of 

 thinning plantations must depend upon the rapidity of their 

 growth, and will vary from eight to fourteen years from the time 

 of planting. In mixed plantations of oaks, ash, Spanish chesnut, 

 and beech, with resinous trees for nurses, the utmost attention 

 must be paid to preserve the former from being overtopped by 

 their vigorous nurses, during every year of their growth, and this 

 may be effected by either shortening the boughs of the nurses, or, 

 if needful, by removing them. At the first thinning, half the 

 total number of trees may be removed, with perhaps some ex- 

 ception in such parts where the trees are less prosperous. By 

 thus cutting them down in rows, the labour will be more easily 

 performed, both of cutting and carrying away the poles. The 

 spray should be cut off, and left where the tree falls. The num- 

 ber of trees removed at the first thinning must, however, depend 

 upon the actual state of their branches, reference being always 

 had to the rule laid down as to the relative proportion of the head 

 and stem. Half the remainder may be gradually removed, at 

 from three to five years after ; thus leaving only a fourth of the 

 original number standing at the end of from fifteen to nineteen 

 years. From this time the business of thinning may be pursued 

 every winter, attending to those parts of the plantation first where 

 the trees grow most rapidly, and with this object always in view, 

 that the branches of none of the trees, and especially those in- 

 tended finally to remain, be so injured by their neighbours as to 

 prevent their retaining a jjerfectly healthy head of full half their 

 entire height. This is the great rule and guide to be observed in 

 thinning, and will stand in lieu of all others, as to the time and 

 manner of doing it. The business of thinning will generally be 

 completed in about thirty years from the time of planting, when 

 the trees will stand at their proper and ultimate distance for tim- 

 ber. During all this time the branches whose leaves have been 

 killed by the exclusion of light must be removed close to the 



