PLANTING DISTANCE FOR DOUGLAS FIR. I3 



eight years, and most of them for less than seven years. But 

 the branches will be much shorter and weaker than they 

 would have been if the trees had been planted further apart, 

 and close pruning of the trees likely to form part of the mature 

 crop will not be difficult or expensive. It is interesting to 

 compare the experience of a distinguished French forester ; 

 M. Hickel, in a recent number of the Bulletin de la Soci^te 

 Dendrologique de France, tells us that the optimum develop- 

 ment of Douglas fir is obtained in woods of even age and even 

 height. He comments on the persistence of the side branches 

 after they are dead, and tells us that the natural cleaning of the 

 stem only begins at the age of forty years. He adds that there 

 is nothing to prevent us from pruning off the dead branches, as 

 the cicatrisation of wounds is very rapid. 



An examination of a plantation of Douglas fir made in the 

 spring of 191 1 gave the following results in May 1921 at the 

 beginning of the summer growth : — 



The plantation was made with 2-yr. i-yr. plants at a 

 distance of 3 feet apart — estimated not measured : in 1921, a 

 careful measurement of the distance apart of thirty-two trees 

 gave extremes of 3 ft. 4 ins. and 2 ft. i in. and a mean of 



2 ft. ID ins. The distances were measured from centre to 

 centre of the trees on a level, not along the ground line, which 

 has a considerable slope. 



The number of tiers of branches which have lost their leaves 

 owing to shade varies from four to six ; in a few cases the 

 short branches of the lowest tier are already dry and brittle, 

 but as a rule none of the branches are dry, and they could not 

 be pruned at present without risk of bleeding and damage to 

 the timber. 



The length of the suppressed branches of the third and fourth 

 tiers averages over 3 ft. 6 ins., with a maximum of 5 ft. 2 ins. 



The height-growth of the plantation is good. Shoots of 



3 feet and upwards have been usual in the last few years, and 

 the better poles average over 20 feet in height. 



Even with such close planting as rather less than 3 feet apart, 

 the suppression of side branches has not gone very far at the 

 end of ten years, and the average length of the suppressed 

 branches is a good deal more than the planting distance. It 

 seems probable, therefore, that the wider planting distances now 

 usual will lead to a much greater development of the lower 



