INTERMEDIATE CUTTINGS 



93 



repeated. They should be carried on until the time comes to 

 start reproduction cuttings. 



At the present time in many quarters there is a prejudice 

 against making thinnings through ignorance of their value and 

 especially through belief that they are impracticable. One objec- 

 tion raised is that the uncut trees will be thrown by wind. There 

 is sometimes danger of this on wet ground, with shallow-rooted 

 species, on exposed sites and in stands past middle age when 



Fig. 37. The same stand as in the previous picture but 3 years after the thinning. The 

 crowns have already closed together and another thinning could safely be made. 



thinned for the first time. In such stands the trees often have 

 very small crowns and root systems and depend on each other 

 for support. If thinnings are begun when the stand is twenty 

 to thirty years of age and made light there will not be any large 

 loss due to windfall. 



Another objection is made that the trees, in being cut and 

 removed, will injure the standing trees. This arises through the 

 mistaken idea that the smaller trees are left and the larger are 

 cut, while the reverse is true. Thinnings are often confused in 

 the lay mind with the selection cutting described in Chapter II. 



