THINNINGS. 103 



to fall back on a mechanical formula, "cut two out of three" ; or, 

 perhaps, "clear lines one yard broad, leaving two yards of J or est 

 between." Nevertheless, it is possible for a clear-sighted forester, 

 aided by a careful guard, lo do much better by lessening the 

 crowding of the best stems without isolating them. 



The pine-wood of Cervieres, near Briancon, in a level valley 

 bottom, is stocked with mountain pine growing fairly fast. 

 There I began my career. The forest was then a dense pole- 

 crop, the thin stems no more than about 4| inches in diameter 

 at breast-height, with a short and narrow pyramid of twigs by 

 way of crown at 40 or 50 feet from the ground. They were 

 sick, and seemed that all they could do was to stand upright. 

 I marked a bold thinning, and got a first-class stiff neck over it. 

 I have not seen it since, but two years ago M. Algan, the garde 

 general there, sent me a fine photograph showing the trees and 

 men working among them for comparison, together with a de- 

 scription of the crop, showing that stems of 16 inches are not 

 scarce. These stems have therefore put on 11 inches of diameter 

 in forty years to their original size. And still I have heard of 

 another such dense and dark pole-crop at Gandissart, which, at 

 sixty years of age, on a cold slope, is still in that stage. The 

 Briancon people say "they have always been so." But certainly 

 they have not, for they only began life sixty years ago, and must 

 have been growing since, though at an imperceptible rate. They 

 have never been thinned. 



The larches, which shoot up more rapidly, protect themselves 

 better from a crowded condition, for the dominant stems go 

 ahead and get the mastery ; all the same, uniform-aged crops 

 from a single sowing often suffer considerably. This is seen. 

 In the ordinary fellings for right-holders, or other fellings not 

 fixed by area, it often happened that instead of following the 

 paradoxical idea of some worthy unknown and felling the finest 

 trees, I would particularly select those that were troubling their 

 betters, thus making a true thinning. The right-holders did 

 not always like it, naturally, and one mayor, he of Villars St 

 Pancrace, fell upon me with some heat. There was more waste 

 heat some time later, when a big fire occurred in his village and 

 it had to be rebuilt Then the right-holders were uncommonly 

 glad that the best trees had been preserved twenty years eai'lier. 



In silver fir woods, though less indispensable, the thinning is 

 still of great service. Besides permitting the disposal of surplus 



