CHAPTER II 



CLEANINGS 



Cleanings have for object the timely removal of such 

 constituents of a young crop as threaten to retard or 

 suppress those which have a greater potential value. 



In a pure crop, for example, those which may be 

 removed may be stool-shoots, when there is already a 

 sufficiency of seedlings, or such individuals as may be 

 deformed, unsound, or attacked by parasites, or which 

 have twisted fibre, and also climbing plants which establish 

 themselves over the young crop, suppress it, and bend it 

 down. In a mixed crop those mentioned above may also 

 be removed, but, at the same time, the quicker-growing 

 species may not be the most valuable, and may threaten 

 the future of the latter. In this case a sufficient number of 

 the dominant inferior species may be cut back or lopped, 

 in order to foster a proper proportion of the valuable ones. 

 It may even happen that the inferior species has already 

 grown into a full-sized tree, while the more valuable 

 one may yet be in the seedling or sapling stage, and 

 that it is desirable to sacrifice the tree for the sake of 

 the smaller individual. In the Himalayas, for example, 

 it is, or was, no uncommon sight to see a gigantic spruce 

 fir having- no local value girdled in order to make 

 room for a sapling of deodar cedar. 



The cutting back of climbers is a very necessary 

 operation in a great many tropical forests. There are 

 certain climbers, the value of which is such that it 

 exceeds that of the trees up which they climb, and which 



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