272 PRUNING. 



" Classification of Forest- Trees according to age. The 

 technical names by which reserve trees are known 

 vary in different regions. For our purpose it will be 

 best to divide the life of a forest-tree into four prin- 

 cipal periods, designated as follows : 



1. Young, up to about forty years. 



2. Middle-aged, from forty to eighty years. 



3. Old, from eighty to one hundred and fifty years. 



4. Very old trees, whose number is rapidly dimin- 

 ishing, may be called veterans. 1 



" These divisions are not, of course, absolute, as it 

 is often difficult to determine, even approximately, the 

 age of a standing tree ; and the forester must use 

 considerable judgment in the application of the fol- 

 lowing rules : 



" 1. The head of the young tree should be egg- 

 shaped or elongated oval, and well balanced on the 

 trunk, which should not exceed a third of the entire 

 height of the tree. The lower branches should be 

 sufficiently shortened to check their excessive growth 

 at the expense of the leader, without, however, being 

 so reduced as to impair the vigour of growth of the 

 tree. 



" 2. The head of the middle-aged tree should form 

 an oval less elongated than that necessary for trees of 

 the first class. The height of the trunk should equal 

 one-third to two-fifths of the height of the tree. 



1 " The technical terms employed in France to designate trees of the 

 four classes into which forest-trees are generally divided baliveau, 

 moderne, ancien, and meittes tcorces have no equivalent as yet, and are 

 not well translated into English. The term baliveau is also sometimes 

 applied to reserve trees of any age left after the first cutting of a plan- 

 tation, and such trees are then called modernes or anciens, according 

 as they have been allowed to remain after a second or third cutting of 

 the coppice." C. S. S. 



