VARIABLE EFFECTS OF THINNING. 149 



fir plantations. We have not by any means over- 

 looked the circumstance that by very early thinning 

 the trees are thereby allowed so far to spread their 

 branches as to become comparatively bushy and un- 

 duly thick in stem (for a time) compared with their 

 height. Now there is not the slightest need of apology 

 for these apparently unfavourable results : for it is 

 just as unreasonable to look for a full-grown man in 

 one who had not first been a child, as to look for a 

 stately well-proportioned tree without its first under- 

 going all the necessary preliminary stages of growth. 

 The bushy tree, with spreading branches, shows con- 

 clusively that it has already furnished itself well with 

 corresponding proper roots, and at the same time made 

 ample provision for continuous and rapid growth for 

 all future years, even to old age. The branches, too, 

 as may well be understood from their distance apart, 

 cannot increase beyond the limits assigned them ; and 

 if the trees are 9 feet apart, it is quite evident the 

 branches of each tree cannot be more than 4J feet in 

 length ; and the length, again, so far regulates the girth, 

 for there is always a corresponding proportion be- 

 tween the length and thickness of the branches, just 

 as there is between the length and girth of the stem. 



If the plantation is to be cut down as mature at, 

 say, sixty to seventy years old, it is better that noth- 

 ing farther be done to it by way of thinning, except 

 cutting down dead or damaged trees. 



The less disturbance of any kind that is given to a 

 Scots fir plantation, and the more it is left to nature 

 from first to last, the better, as nothing is more in- 

 jurious, either to the individual tree or the plantation 

 as a whole, than subjecting it to any sudden change, 

 such as admitting strong currents of air, or the direct 



