292 On the Planting of Forest-Trees. 



to the conclusion, that the intention of the proprietor was to pre- 

 duce a crop of poles, and not timber, if the time they are often 

 suffered to stand did not refute the notion. I have frequently wit- 

 nessed the effect of long neglect of thinning plantations of oak, 

 in soils and situations capable of producing trees of the largest 

 dimensions, where, from the trees having been allowed to stand 

 within a few feet of each other for perhaps sixty years, their tall 

 attenuated stems, of 40 or 50 feet bore, on their tops small 

 bushy, unhealthy heads of almost vertical boughs, and the corre- 

 sponding Aveakness of their roots, made them liable to be swept 

 down by every rough blast of wind. 



The effect of relieving such trees by removing a portion of 

 them, a proceeding in such extreme cases always hazardous, was 

 in one instance very remarkable; obstructed Nature seemed to 

 rejoice in her liberty, and the before-naked stems sent out innii- 

 merable shoots through their whole length, and the heads bore 

 fruit, which they never produced before. 



Such cases are much too common. The Scotch Laird's injunc- 

 tion to his son, " to be aye sticking in a tree," was excellent advice 

 as far as it went, but was very imperfect : he should have enjoined 

 him at the same time to be aye looking after it, and taking care 

 that those which he himself had planted were not spoiled by 

 neglect. It is no argument against the careful and judicious 

 thinning and pruning the trees in plantations and even of natural 

 forests, that we get fine timber from the continental forests which 

 have had no such advantages. The trees in such forests are very 

 differently circumstanced from those in plantations, as the latter 

 are all planted at one time, and are equal rivals of each other ; 

 whereas in the former case they rise at different times, whereby 

 some obtain an ascendency, and are enabled to spread forth their 

 branches and produce fine timber. The number of these, how- 

 ever, is comparatively very small ; for I have been assured by an 

 experienced lumberer, as the wood-cutters are called, that in the 

 Canadian forests, not above one in ten thousand is found to be 

 worth cutting for transport to this country. 



The care of man, therefore, in the management of growing 

 timber, may be made as beneficial as in any other kind of cul- 

 tivation. Instead of one tree in many thousands, every tree in a 

 well-managed plantation will be rendered valuable. 



In thinning neglected plantations the greatest caution must be 

 exercised to prevent a too sudden exposure, which would soon be 

 destructive of the whole. The outside trees should not be 

 touched ; and within, the most stifled and injured of them should 

 be selected first, and as those left standing gained strength more 

 might be removed. 



Though the profit of planting is unquestionably great, as may 



