THINNING AND PRUNING 133 



is done too early, coarse timber will be the result. To what 

 extent this thinning should be carried out must depend upon 

 circumstances, such as soil and species. On good soils, and 

 with shade-bearers, less thinning is required than on bad soils 

 and with light-demanders, and each species will behave differ- 

 ently under the same conditions. But, generally, the removal 

 of all partly suppressed and a few of the damaged and 

 unhealthy dominant trees in the crop will be sufficient to 

 carry on growth until the trees approach maturity. The 

 question of taking out suppressed trees entirely in a wood at 

 this stage is a question which most foresters would consider 

 too foregone a conclusion to trouble about. But we believe 

 that such trees have not entirely fulfilled their purpose when 

 the stem clearing of their stronger neighbours is accom- 

 plished. Their lower crowns help to keep out wind, shade the 

 ground and stems of their neighbours, and, from an aesthetic 

 point of view, give just that touch of variety which is needed 

 in even-aged woods. So long as they are still healthy, their 

 existence can do no harm, and in most cases we believe 

 that they do a certain amount of good in the direction in- 

 dicated, and are often useful in supplying sizes of timber 

 which cannot always be obtained without breaking into 

 younger woods. 



With every care, absolutely correct thinning in any case 

 is impossible, and reasonably correct thinning can only be 

 practised in a plantation which has been properly planted 

 at the outset, and which has never been thinned previously 

 on faulty lines. Injudicious mixtures, or plantations planted 

 at too wide intervals between the plants, can rarely be 

 properly thinned, however painstaking the thinner may be. 

 Correct thinning merely assists nature, and is not, as many 

 suppose, a remedy which aims at effacing her efforts alto- 

 gether. Just as the clever physician recognises that all his 

 drugs are ineffectual in curing an illness unless they act in 

 the same direction as the natural functions of the body, so 

 the judicious forester sees clearly that the laws of growth 

 must be humoured and obeyed if good results are to follow. 



Take, for instance, a pure crop of seedlings of any one 

 species, thin them out so that the largest individuals are 

 equally distributed over the ground, leave them entirely 



