of the Northern Forest 49 



success with it should be another reason for growing 

 the tree where the woodland conditions are favourable. 



The idea that these trees should be planted far apart 

 is wrong. They should, like other forest trees, be planted 

 young and close, say 8 feet, with a Larch between every 

 two trees, to be thinned in after life without losing the 

 canopy overhead. That makes the whole of the trees 

 about 4 feet apart. Later on they must be thinned, but 

 never so much as we are told in books on conifers. The 

 mutual shelter the trees get, the shade for the roots, the 

 warmth and the deliverance from old weary branches 

 which garden planters are always grieving over the loss 

 of, but which the tree in nature always gets rid of, help 

 in all ways. I can imagine nothing grander than a grove 

 of Big Trees grown in these forest ways. Eventually 

 the Larch or other nursing tree would have to be cut 

 away and the trees themselves thinned to 20 or more 

 feet apart according to age and size. 



