THINNINGS. 107 



silver nr, reference may be made to the "Traitement des Bois," 

 where it is fully treated. 



Most of our silver fir forests have been treated under the 

 selection method, and contain stems of all ages, mixed up 

 together, which are consecutively reaching maturity. Then 

 they have to be removed, and sometimes their extraction is com- 

 bined with a true thinning simultaneously. It would be safer to 

 make the thinning two or three years later, when the absence of 

 the large trees would allow a better insight into the requirements 

 of the crop. But to return to our crops of uniform age. 



Take Scots pine. In this case the crowded state must be guarded 

 against. The idea is here again easier to grasp than to execute. 

 Still, when the pine tree is of natural origin, it is always more or 

 less irregular, sometimes containing a few broad-leaved specimens, 

 if only the transitory birches, which will shortly execute a natural 

 thinning of themselves. The idea to grasp is that the pine lives 

 in a canopy, open but evenly distributed, quite a different style of 

 thing from isolated trees. This once realised, the forester will 

 free, without isolating, one or both sides of the crown. The 

 operation is far more necessary here than in silver firs, and more 

 remunerative. 



The pure beech forest is the birthplace of the systematic 

 thinning, which consequently presents no difficulty there. Free 

 boldly at first, and much more gradually later, or if preferred 

 operate often in youth, and at longer and longer intervals later. 

 Either rule will give good results. Each time a number of thin 

 or aggressive crowns, greater or smaller in proportion to the bold- 

 ness and date of the previous operations and to the rate of growth, 

 will be cut out. The definitions of the term thinning, based on 

 the number of stems to remove, arose in these high forests of pure 

 beech, and are not safe to apply elsewhere. 



As these crops grow older, an undergrowth of beech spi'ings up, 

 which remains starved and never comes to anything under the 

 cover. Though probably useful, it is of little importance whether 

 this exists or not. If it comes, leave it ; if not, do not seek it. 



Under the beech high forest of Dayancourt, aged one hundred 

 and eighty years, at Villers Cotterets, amidst a scanty under- 

 wood, notwithstanding the elevation of the very lofty crowns, 

 M. Bagneris, who carried a long, iron-shod stick, drove it in up 

 to the top, so light and loose was the soil. How the oak would 

 have equally prospered under such conditions? In similar soil in 



