22 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
adopted; and this brings me back to a point I wish particularly 
to emphasise, viz., that the teaching of our predecessors in 
Scottish forestry was not far wrong, and that there is not, and 
never has been, a good foundation for the wholesale denunciation 
of British forestry, which of late years it has been the custom 
for certain people to indulge in. The system I adopted may be 
described as a combination of thinning and regenerating in 
perpetuity. Thinning sparingly and frequently is my rule. I am 
fortunate in living in a district with a fair demand for all kinds 
of timber, large and small. Sometimes there is a good demand 
for one kind; sometimes for another. I endeavour to take 
advantage of this as far as possible, as it is important in the 
pecuniary interests of the owner of the woods. Prices in my 
experience have varied 130 per cent., and the prices of to-day 
are a long way under high-water mark. In the early years of 
a plantation’s existence, it is sometimes necessary to take out 
those kinds which are of little value, in the interest of those 
which are to remain; and I never hesitate to do this, as the 
main reason for thinning young plantations is that the majority 
which remain may benefit. 
I am not writing an article on Zhznning, and I therefore offer 
no remarks on my method of doing the work; I only state that 
at this period of a plantation’s existence, when the trees come 
into leaf after a judicious thinning, the canopy ought to be 
complete, and no question of undergrowth or underplanting 
should arise. Some woods I have thinned every six years; 
others I have thinned at varying intervals up to ten years. At 
each operation, the question as to whether it will pay best then, 
or at some future period, to cut down individual trees arises. 
The trees having now attained a considerable size, when 
thinning takes place a gap in the overhead covering will be 
produced, and now is the time to encourage the growth of the 
naturally-sown seedlings, or, if there are none of these, to plant 
young trees in all the open places. In my own case this cannot 
be done without protection from rabbits. It must be borne in 
mind that I am not writing of conditions which are ideally the 
best for planting operations, but of those where the rabbit has 
privileges which cannot be gainsaid. I will not state here what 
means I took to checkmate Mr Bunny; but suffice it to say I 
did manage it after many failures. In this district, sycamore 
seedlings come up well in many woods, and I have taken 
