HIGH WOODS, COPSES, ETC. 279 



satisfactory trees, and to underplant those re- 

 maining, or else gradually to clear off the whole 

 of the wood and form a new crop, either by 

 means of natural regeneration or by sowing and 

 planting. Again, many young coniferous crops 

 formed during the last twenty-five to thirty-five 

 years have been planted at distances varying from 

 4 feet by 4 feet to 6 feet by 6 feet, with the conse- 

 quence that some of these latter, of pine especially, 

 are only now beginning to form close canopy for 

 woods of their class, and commencing to clean 

 themselves of their lower branchlets. They are 

 often now just at the stage when they are likely 

 to be very prejudicially affected as to their ulti- 

 mate value as a crop if the past arboricultural 

 method of heavy thinning be still followed. The 

 best treatment for such plantations lies in the 

 careful retention of the close cover now at length 

 attained, and in the restriction of thinnings to 

 the mere removal of almost suppressed or of 

 badly-diseased poles, and the cutting off of dead 

 branches and snags. Canopy being adequately 

 maintained, such woods can be thinned every 

 four or five years, yielding good returns wher- 

 ever there is a fair market for large poles, till 



