THE FORMATION OF PLANTATIONS, Al 
their relative positions, and make uniformly equal growths until 
both had reached their full height, a system of natural pruning 
would have been carried out on the sides of both stems that faced 
each other, the branches on the smaller plant being checked and 
killed earlier in life than those on the larger one however. If small 
plants had stood on every side of the large one, the pruning process 
would have been complete, and we should have a typical illustration 
of what takes place, more or less, in a natural forest, and which 
produces pine timber of such excellent quality and almost free from 
large knots. 
It is not contended, however, that such a method is the best and 
most economical for the practical forester to adopt in the case of 
plantations, and there are several reasons for coming to this con- 
clusion. In the first place, the trees in a plantation are nearly 
equal in size, and would, therefore, be in danger of sacrificing one 
another before one could rise above the other. In the case of the 
natural forest, too, only one out of every ten may be placed in the 
way we illustrated, and therefore the proportion of well-grown 
timber trees will be comparatively small, and not sufficient to give 
a fair yield. But in spite of these objections, it is evident that the 
saine principles will hold good in the case of artificial plantations, 
as in the natural forests, although the treatment must be modified 
to suit the altered conditions. 
Even in artificial plantations, however, by the time the trees 
require thinning, they will not be found all one size. Some will 
be found 2 or 3 feet taller than others ; or, in other words, natural 
selection will be operating on the crop. The duty of the forester, 
then, will be to assist this operation as much as possible, and 
endeavour to secure a regular distribution of strong, clean-growing 
trees, by checking the tops of all trees that are competing too closely 
with those that are intended to grow until the second thinning. 
By the ordinary method, the unnecessary (?) trees would be taken 
out altogether, but the objections to this method are these :—In 
the first place, it exposes the soil to the sun and wind, and it 
becomes hard and dry and unfavourable to any roots that may 
have found their way along the surface ; Second, grass and rubbish 
again begin to grow, and appropriate the moisture and humus ; 
Third, the stems of the plants are exposed to the sun, and the 
development of side branches encouraged, causing the formation 
of inferior wood. Other objections might be raised, but these are 
the principal ones, and are thought to be sufficient to justify the 
