CHAPTEE I. 



INTKODUCTION. 



THE thinning of plantations is such an important 

 branch of forestry, that every opportunity should be 

 taken advantage of to study it and set forth its claims. 



The operations of thinning either confer much good 

 or inflict great evil, according to the skill with which 

 they are performed. 



If we study nature carefully, and accurately imi- 

 tate her operations of thinning in the natural forest, 

 we shall do well ; but in this we must be both observ- 

 ant and accurate to the last degree. 



In the natural forest the crop is sown, not all at 

 once, as in the nursery ground, but at different times, 

 and therefore the plants come up more or less irregu- 

 lar, those obtaining the precedence keeping and main- 

 taining it ; therefore the oldest and furthest advanced 

 trees keep down and kill the younger ones, which is 

 nature's own way of thinning. 



Under peculiar and favourable circumstances small 

 patches of natural forest, whether alder, birch, or Scots 

 pine, will be found of nearly one age and equal growth, 

 being the result of turf -cutting or surf ace -burning, 

 which admitted the seed depositing itself, and the 

 plants in such groups growing up equal and at one 



