TENDING OF CROWDED WOODS. 213 



should be avoided. In such cases the dominated trees, 

 or at any rate a portion of them, must be retained 

 whenever the dominant trees alone are not sufficiently 

 numerous to provide a complete leaf-canopy. If, on 

 the other hand, the number of dominant trees is so 

 large that they interfere with each other's proper 

 development, not only the dominated but also a portion 

 of the dominant trees may be removed. 



As regards the objects of management, it suffices in 

 practical Sylviculture to distinguish between the follow- 

 ing two cases : 



(a.) Production of the greatest quantity of material. 

 (b.) highest quality 



In some cases the two objects may be realized by an 

 identical treatment, in others the one demands a method 

 of thinning different from that which is desirable in the 

 other. 



a. Production of the greatest Quantity of Material. 

 Experience has shown that the greatest quantity is 

 produced in the shortest possible time by a vigorous 

 development of the dominant trees ; so that the dominated 

 trees are only retained so long as they are required for 

 the protection of the soil. 



L COMMENCEMENT OF THINNINGS. 



The first thinning should be made as soon as the 

 struggle for existence has commenced, that is to say, 

 when there is no longer sufficient space for the proper 

 development of all trees. Such early thinnings are to 

 the interest of the dominant trees, which are thus 

 enabled to lay on an extra quantity of wood, and they 



