EFFECTS OF THINNING ON YOUNG PLANTATIONS. 171 



without deranging the plan of squares and straight lines. 

 My plan is, when a deviation of road is unavoidable, 

 to confine it to the one particular road, and not de- 

 range the general lines of all the others. 



The work of thinning is proceeded with according 

 to the size of the trees, and here special attention 

 should be paid to their height. As a rule, I thin 

 when the remaining crop stands 6 or 8 feet high, at 

 which period they should be thinned to about 7 feet 

 apart, or say 800 trees per acre. I know this practice 

 is called in question by some and condemned by others, 

 and few approve or practise it. 



On these and other accounts, I am all the more 

 anxious to state fully my own reasons for adopting it, 

 and giving my experience of it upon an extensive 

 scale. 



First, an active man with a proper hand-bill (not 

 hedge-bill), which is the only proper implement I 

 know of for such work, will thin an acre in two days, 

 and this represents 6s. per acre added to the original 

 cost of forming the plantation. The thinnings at this 

 stage I put no money value upon. They are mostly 

 collected and carted away by the tenantry and others ; 

 but the cost and labour of clearing are so great, that 

 no money is charged for them except a very small 

 sum for such as are on the margin of the plantation 

 and convenient to clear. 



The second reason for thinning at this early period 

 is in order to give the remaining crop perfect freedom 

 and liberty to develop their lower branches. It is 

 those branches situated upon the lower part of the 

 tree that supplies food and nourishment to the roots, 

 and unless they are preserved vital at this critical 

 period of the tree's existence, it very soon ceases to 



