NEGLECTED PLANTATIONS. 225 



nine to twelve feet apart, less or more, ac- 

 cording to the progress the plants have made, 

 quality of the soil, &c. 



Plantations of about thirty or forty years 

 old, which have been suffered to run into 

 disorder, must be gone about with care. The 

 first thinning should be to about nine or ten 

 feet apart; the next, within four or five years, 

 to about fifteen or twenty; and a third re- 

 vision, in eight or ten years more, should de- 

 termine the final distance to from thirty to 

 forty feet, according to circumstances, as 

 above. It may be unnecessary to repeat, 

 that such plants as have lost their leaders are 

 the first objects for removal, provided no con- 

 siderable blank be thereby occasioned. 



Pruning, except to prevent forks in the 

 leader, is unnecessary in any stage. 



6thly. HEDGE-ROW TIMBER, which has 

 been neglected or mal-treated, may be re- 

 claimed in a great measure after a few years 

 necessary attention to reduce the plants into 

 form, by degrees. Trees, however, of this de- 

 scription, are often found so squat and bushy, 

 if much exposed, that it would be next to im- 

 prssible to shape them for tall timber. For 



