' BELGIAN FORESTRY IN SOME OF ITS ASPECTS. 147 
Belgian forester has to contend with. As regards pruning on its 
own merits, it was stated that, so far as dead branches were con- 
cerned, Scots pine could be pruned with impunity, but that 
spruce must on no account be pruned. It should be noted, 
however, that here the prunings could be readily sold. Another 
special feature of these pine-woods is the method of clearing off 
the crop, and again replanting about two years afterwards. 
When mining-timber is the object in view, it has been found 
that it is most profitable to make clear-fellings at forty years of 
age. The method adopted in clearing here is to pull every indi- 
vidual tree out by the root by means of the apparatus shown in 
Fig. 3. The roots can all be sold for fuel, and after the ground 
is cleared it is ploughed and cropped for one or two years, and 
manured with basic slag. The ground is then netted in, and 
planted with 2-years’ seedlings, or 1-year—1-year transplants, at 
the rate of 8000 per acre. The planting is done by means of a 
planting-iron, the operation resembling somewhat our own “notch” 
method, and by this means a manand a boy can plant 4000 plants 
per day. It was found, however, on pulling up a few of the plants, 
which had been planted two years previously, that the rootlets 
were often twisted, though it must be admitted that the roots of 
forty-year-old trees, pulled out by the apparatus already referred 
to, had wonderfully straight roots. It cannot be too often re- 
iterated, however, that twisting of the tiny rootlets in nurseries, 
and careless notch-planting, give rise to a large death-rate 
amongst young pine-woods. In consequence of careless planting, 
the plants often die off after they have reached the age of six or 
eight years. The replanting here is all done under the shelter 
of older woods, a method we should do well to imitate. We 
could not, however, imitate the other details just referred to, as 
in this part of Belgium everything can be disposed of, and labour 
and plants are cheap. 
Regarding the management of young pine-woods, our little 
guide-book gives the following particulars :— 
“The following statement gives the results of thinning an acre 
of pine-wood, thirty-eight years old, in 1892, showing the conse- 
quent improvement in volume-increment. Thinnings of pines 
have been too often neglected in Belgium. 
“The increment for the thinned wood in five years has 
been :—2507 — 1900+ 250 cubic feet=857 cubic feet; for the 
unthinned wood:— 2394-1940 cubic feet=454 cubic feet; 
