CHAP, ix.] Tending of Woods 197 



the weedings and clearings, the thinnings, and the partial clear- 

 ances the same object is definitely kept in view, viz. the 

 best possible ultimate development of the individual stems 

 forming the chief financial factors in the mature crop. During 

 all these tending operations the more valuable kinds of trees 

 are not only protected against other species threatening their 

 existence, but efforts are also consistently made to procure for 

 them, at all the various stages of their development, such 

 conditions relative to growing-space, &c., as may produce the 

 greatest outturn of long-stemmed, large-girthed, and full- wooded 

 timber in the shortest space of time or, in other words, as may 

 produce the most valuable timber, technically and financially, 

 at the least cost of production. 



In practical forestry this method of partial clearance is 

 to a great extent naturally confined to Oak, Scots Pine, and 

 Larch ; for the other light-demanding species of trees, Maples, 

 Elm, Ash, Birch, &c., which are in request for ornamental work 

 chiefly, are generally utilized during the later thinnings. When 

 forests, in which the ruling species is Silver Fir or Beech, are to 

 be naturally reproduced, the same stimulation to increment in 

 girth, and to improvement in the shape of the bole, is prac- 

 tically obtained during the clearances made preparatory to, and 

 following after, the seed- felling. In sheltered localities the effects 

 of partial clearance are also very profitable in the case of Spruce 

 crops, which, owing to the great danger to which this shallow- 

 rooting species is exposed from windfall, are not generally 

 regenerated naturally, except under very favourable circum- 

 stances as regards protection from winds. 



When the first partial clearance is made in Oak woods 

 about the fiftieth to sixtieth year, in Scots Pine between the 

 thirtieth to fiftieth year, and in Larch about the thirtieth to 

 thirty-fifth year the fall is confined to all stems of inferior 

 development, or to such as do not give promise of ultimately 

 producing timber of the better class. Later on, in about five, 

 or ten, or fifteen years, when the standard trees gradually begin 



