74 PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



and development. We have already drawn attention 

 to the fact that proximity of plants affects directly the 

 initial cost e.g., if trees are planted 3 feet apart, 4,840 

 plants are required per acre ; whereas if 4 feet or 4^ 

 feet is the chosen distance, 2,722 and 2,151 plants 

 respectively will be required only. If we take these 

 as one year seedlings, two years transplanted, usually 

 sold for 153. to 2Os. per 1000, there is at once a saving 

 of, say, 403. per acre, exclusive of the cost of planting. 

 If nothing is gained, therefore, by close planting (and 

 we maintain much is lost), this is a case of sheer waste 

 and extravagance. 



When we consider by-and-by the cost of planting 

 we must again draw attention to this point ; in the 

 meantime it is only necessary to impress upon the 

 forester the necessity of early and gradual thinning, 

 and then to proceed to describe the actual process. 



When the period arrives for thinning, the forester 

 will make the necessary arrangements for carrying it 

 out. If the area is large he must commence early, 

 even if by so doing he sacrifices to some extent the 

 thinnings i.e., without his staff is also large. He 

 should proceed year by year, and section by section, 

 so that the whole work is kept under control. We say 

 section by section, because he has, of course, arranged 

 the plantations in squares of uniform dimension. If 

 planted in rows, there will be little difficulty in 

 deciding what trees to remove and what to leave ; but 

 if random planting has been resorted to, greater care 

 must be exercised. Of course, in every case the best 

 and most robust trees must be left, and the weakest 

 and ill-formed removed. Small trees, too, which have 



