PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



Anyone at all interested in the management of our woods 

 and plantations must have noticed that trees having an 

 abundance of room and light on all sides make comparatively 

 short and thick trunks that are well furnished with branches ; 

 whereas such as are grown up in a circumscribed space and 

 amongst others are tall and straight, with clean, well-formed 

 trunks destitute v of branches for the greater part of their 

 height. All species, or nearly all, are governed by the same 

 laws, that is to say, those that have the least room laterally, 

 within, of course, certain prescribed limits, which will be 

 described hereafter, produce the tallest, cleanest, and 

 straightest trunks, and vice versa. 



The influence of light has not, in this country at least, been 

 sufficiently taken into account in the rearing of timber, but 

 it has everything to do in directing the growth of trees, and 

 should be a most important factor in the hands of the forester. 

 Thus, if it be allowed in excess, as when the trees stand far 

 apart, the growth of lateral shoots and large branches will be 

 greatly induced, the result being short and thick boles, that 

 are rough and knotty, and ill-adapted for constructive 

 purposes. On the other hand, by keeping the trees thick on 

 the ground, light is, to a greater or less extent, excluded, and 

 the trees grow tall, straight, and branchless for the greater 

 part of their height, and are of the greatest economic value. 

 But here another and very important question crops up. To 

 what extent in a wood, managed sojely for the value of the 

 timber it produces, will it be profitable to thin ? In dealing 

 with this, two distinct bearings should be kept in mind the 

 f first, that too small a quantity of branches, and consequently 

 leaves, must, to a greater or less extent, check the growth of 

 the trees, and so diminish the production of timber; and, 

 second, that by having too large a quantity, the value of the 

 timber is greatly reduced in consequence, and the number of 

 trees to the acre much diminished as well. 



There is, therefore, a medium between these two, and by 

 adopting which, the greatest quantity of the most valuable 

 timber will be produced ; although, at the same time, it is 

 astonishing, when looked at from a physiological point of 



view, what a small quantity of foliage is required to keep a 



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