A VISIT TO PR SC'IILICh's FORESTS AT MIRWART, 247 



might have been adhered to; but the first thinning would prob 

 ably not have been required until about the twenty-fifth year. 

 Even at that age, the number of dead, dying, and suppressed trees 

 would probably have been small, and it might have been found 

 necessary to remove a portion of the healthy stems in order to 

 afford more growing space for those left upon the ground. 

 Thinnings might have been necessaiy at short intervals between 

 the twenty-fifth and the thirty-second years, after which a com- 

 paratively heavy thinning would have been made, in order to 

 allow the stems of the final crop to put on girth. At the age of 

 forty years, the crop per acre might have been expected to consist 

 of from 800 to 900 trees (as compared with 600 in the case of 

 Scots pine), these trees being about 55 feet high, and having a 

 girth at breast-height of about 18 inches. The volume of such a 

 crop would be about 30 per cent, higher than the crop of Scots 

 pine, and the yield per acre per annum might approach 150 cubic 

 feet. On the stock being removed, it would probably have been 

 renewed by planting spruce at 4 feet intervals. 



A Hill-side, 



from which a crop of Scots pine, consisting of 600 trees to the 

 acre, and forty years old, had been cut for pit-wood in 1892. 

 The ground had then been planted up with Scots pine, spruce, 

 and White (Weymouth) pine. The treatment contemplated was 

 to utilise all thinnings made up to the age of forty years as pit- 

 wood. The greater part of the Scots pine would be taken out 

 during these thinnings, and the remainder of the crop, mostly 

 spruce and White pine, would be allowed to grow on into high 

 forest. At the end of the rotation, the area might be restocked 

 with spruce by the method of Natural Regeneration. 



Valuation Survey. 



A matter well worth recording in connection with these forests 

 is the manner in which Dr Schlich made, a few years ago, a rapid 

 valuation survey of them. He spent three days in passing 

 through all the blocks which make up his total area of 2844 acres. 

 Once within the woods, he commenced by marking off upon the 

 ground an area of one-tenth of an acre. On this small plot he 

 estimated the value of every tree ; he then walked on, at an 

 even pace, for exactly ten minutes by the watch, when he halted, 



