144 TENDING OF YOUNG HIGH FOREST, ETC. 



Now, much of this cleaning or "cutting out" could be 

 avoided if the land had been ploughed and cleaned prior to 

 planting ; and if good enough and suitable a " cleaning " 

 crop such as potatoes taken from it. 



Often, when a young crop, consisting of a tender species 

 up to 5 or 6 years, does not do well, it will be found very 

 useful to plant rows of nurses every 16 feet or so, of Larch 

 or Scots Pine or Birch ; these rows should usually be 

 planted East and West so as to screen off the hot sun ; but 

 often it will be advisable to put them at right angles to 

 the prevailing wind. 



Such a plan can often enable a valuable crop to be grown 

 where late frosts occur ; in such a case the nurses must be 

 Birch or Scots Pine, preferably the former. The Larch 

 would not succeed. 



These nurses should be removed when no longer required. 

 It would, however, be futile to plant the nurses, if the tender 

 crop were already permanently injured. 



Then again, backward plantations of broad-leaved trees 

 can often be improved by cutting the trees back to the 

 ground level 2 to 4 years after planting. ( Vide " Pruning " at 

 end of this chapter.) 



Apart from the cleaning of a young crop and the cutting 

 of rank grass in the first 2 or 3 years, some attention will 

 often be necessary when from 7 to 10 years old. This is 

 really another "cleaning" if that word should be used to 

 express those cultural operations which do not pay for 

 their cost, whereas the word "thinning" is usually applied 

 only if the material cut will pay for the cost of the opera- 

 tion. 



As already stated, the cost of cutting out rank growth until 

 trees are 4 to 6 feet high should be considered as part of the 

 original cost of forming the plantation ; but expenses 

 incurred after that date should be considered along with 

 the annual outgoings. 



This cleaning at 7 to 10 years of age is not always 

 necessary ; but in the case of coniferous plantations it will 

 always be wise to go over them and cut out, collect, and burn 



