186 



suffice it to say, that the thinnings should be attend- 

 ed to with the greatest skill and activity. 



No. LXI. 



Old Fir Wood. 



The most of this old fir plantation requires thin- 

 ning, and if judiciously done, will still improve it ; 

 notwithstanding its having been most miserably treat- 

 ed in thinning, &c. formerly. The method I would 

 propose for recovering this plantation, is to go care- 

 fully through the whole, and mark such of the firs as 

 are injuring each other; also, all such as the other 

 tree or trees will be benefited by their being taken 

 away, and all the firs that are over-toping and injur- 

 ing any hardwood tree, thereby allowing the hard- 

 wood to get up, if it is a promising plant ; if it is not, 

 and if oak or any such as will grow by cutting, let it 

 be immediately cut over ; but in this case, some of 

 the firs may even be spared till the young growth 

 comes up, and so soon as they begin to injure them, 

 cut away the firs. The same method may be observed 

 in the corner west from the cross dike, till where it 

 narrows into a narrow strip, with this difference, that 

 all the healthy thriving Scotch firs should here be 

 saved till the projected young plants, in the field on the 

 south side, come up ; here I have been rather more 

 sparing of the field than the old line by the plough 

 furrow, as the old strip is of sufficient breadth al- 

 ready ; I have marked the letter P. thus, on a stand- 

 ing tree in the strip, &c. and making the young plan- 

 tations of nearly an equal breadth, from the boundary 



