THINNING MIXED PLANTATIONS. 181 



present day are ruined by overthinning the result, 

 first, of the want of trained men ; or second, where 

 experienced men are employed on an estate, the term 

 of their management is so uncertain that they aim 

 more at having a good balance in their favour at the 

 end of the year than securing the ultimate success of 

 the plantation. I strongly recommend that no healthy 

 tree be cut until it has attained a marketable value. 

 The great aim of forestry should be to secure the 

 highest possible return from the ground, and nothing 

 adds more to this than length of scantling. Length 

 is the principal object, and can only be attained by 

 preserving a closeness of trees on the acre. When I 

 say a closeness of trees, I do not mean that one tree 

 should interfere with another, knowing that the two 

 things most essential to the growth of trees are root 

 and branches. Quality, nowadays, is subordinate to 

 quantity, and there is a danger of placing too high an 

 estimate on the value of thinnings and too little on 

 the crop remaining for the final cutting. The final 

 cutting should never be less than eighty trees per acre 

 if larch, and nearly two-thirds more if Scots fir." 



"Supposing that 2500 larches and 1500 Scots firs have been planted 

 per acre, the thinnings might realise as follows : 



First thinning, at fifteen years 



Larches, 600, at 2d., 500 



Scots, 300, at Id., 150 



900 650 



Cost of cutting, 3s. 6d. per 100, . . . . 1116 



4 13 6 



Second thinning, at eighteen years 



Larches, 300, at 3d., 3 15 



Scots, 200, at2d., 1 13 4 



500 584 



Cost of cutting, 4s. per 100, 100 



484 



