THE CULTIVATION OF HARDWOODS. 49 



seedlings appear, where formerly not a single seedling more 

 than one year old was to be found. 



The plea of returns from early thinnings is another of the 

 props of the mixture system, but a very weak one, as too early 

 thinning has very often been the means of doing incalculable 

 harm to the final crop ; and even apart from this, it is question- 

 able whether such thinnings can now be justified at all, because 

 larch was the principal tree for early thinnings, and its proneness 

 to disease has reduced its value in that respect ; and what with 

 creosoting and other methods of wood preserving, hardwood 

 poles are almost of equal value, for fencing and other purposes, 

 with larch or fir thinnings. 



The above causes then, which have been responsible for the 

 prevalence of the system discussed, and which, it is maintained, 

 are not conducive to the best results in the cultivation of hard- 

 woods, may be held to have been removed, or to have become 

 of minor consideration compared with the importance of pro- 

 ducing the best quality of timber, and of making the best of 

 the land. Indeed, if the statements herein made are correct, 

 the causes referred to, with the exception of the nuisance 

 of ground game, are at the present time of little or no con- 

 sequence ; and if the injury done by ground game were 

 estimated at its real value throughout the entire country, there 

 would be every possibility of a reform being achieved in 

 silviculture in general, and in the cultivation of hardwoods in 

 particular. 



(The author proposes to continue this subject in an 

 early issue.) 



VOL. XXL PART L 



