74 THE LARCH. 



then, it is too late. In a rich sheltered valley where 

 the trees are making rapid top growths of say 30 to 

 36 inches annually, thinning should be done before 

 the side branches touch, otherwise the trees will be 

 disproportionately tall in comparison with their thick- 

 ness ; and on the other hand, upon an exposure with 

 the trees far apart, it may be necessary not only to 

 delay thinning until the side branches touch each 

 other, but in some cases not to thin at all, either at 

 the time the branches begin to touch and stop each 

 others' lateral growth, or at any future period. Thin- 

 ning here is not what is required, but closing together 

 and keeping each other comfortable till the crop is 

 ripe and ready to cut down, having attained its maxi- 

 mum value and perfection. 



Plants, as well as animals, possess certain acknowleged 

 points of quality to entitle them to be termed good or 

 bad subjects, and, without enumerating or specifying 

 them too minutely, I shall only indicate those that 

 can be turned to general account. 



A plant or young tree, then, ought to be as many 

 feet and inches in height as it is inches in girth a little 

 above the swell of the roots — that is, when a tree is 

 three feet high, it ought to be three inches in girth, 

 and if twenty feet high, it ought to be twenty inches 

 in girth, and so on during the whole period in which 

 it as a crop requires thinning. 



In order, therefore, to maintain these proportions, 

 due attention must be paid to thinning. If it is found 

 that the girth is proportionally less than the height, 



