CHAPTER IX. 



DISTANCES AND DISTRIBUTION OF TREES 

 IN PLANTATIONS. 



THE forester in all his work must keep in view the 

 future, and a more remote future than the ordinary 

 husbandman. In deciding upon the distance between 

 his trees and the selection to suit soil and site, he will 

 display his skill and knowledge more than in many 

 other branches of forestry. If his object is, as it should 

 be, to grow the greatest amount of good timber in the 

 least possible time, he must carefully exercise this 

 knowledge in the initiatory step, and not by fatuity 

 allow the hopes of an early return to warp his judg- 

 ment. To secure an early return requires close plant- 

 ing, which has a tendency to draw up the trees, and 

 to destroy the natural proportion between the height 

 and girth, which, in well-developed conifers, should be 

 one foot to one inch ?>., an inch in girth should re- 

 present one foot in height. 



Close planting, too, neccessitates early thinning, 

 and early thinning discourages development of timber, 

 especially when dealing with conifers. Some trees 

 require more room than others for example, oaks, 

 though they need protection in their early stages, 



