Practical Forestry 



ash, oak and chestnut, where they have been grown suffi- 

 ciently thick on the ground to kill off the lower branches, 

 and also to cause the trees to rise straight, clean and taper- 

 ing. It is a well-known fact, too, that the timber of trees 

 so grown is far more elastic and realizes a much higher price 

 than that of the same age grown under conditions where 

 pruning might have been a necessity. A case of this kind 

 came under my own notice only a short time ago in which 

 one-half of a plantation of hard-wooded trees realized fully 

 one-fourth more than the remaining half. It came about 

 in this way. Both ends and a large patch in the centre of 

 the wood had been thinned out severely for the purpose 

 of planting game covert. The trees, standing thinly on the 

 ground, branched out and soon covered the open spaces 

 where underwood had been planted. In thinning the whole 

 plantation the trees on these particular parts were very 

 rough and knotty, and bore no comparison to those where 

 they had been left moderately thick on the ground, in con- 

 sequence of which the boles were straight, clean and taper- 

 ing. This case is specially noteworthy, inasmuch as the 

 trees over the whole area were growing under exactly 

 similar conditions as to soil, shelter, etc., and were of the 

 same age and species. 



Great and irreparable damage has been done to woods 

 and plantations in this country by too heavy thinnings, by 

 commencing the thinnings at too early a period, and by 

 adopting the book method of leaving the trees at measured 

 distances apart and a stated number to the acre according 

 to the age of the plantation. Such rules can never be 

 expected to work satisfactorily, the size of trees depending 

 so much on the character of the soil, exposure of the wood- 

 land, and other peculiarities of the particular district in 

 which they are planted. 



Timely and judicious thinning should never be neglected, 

 but it is the over- thinning, whereby branches and knotty 

 trunks are produced and the supposed need for pruning 

 follows, that I wish to deprecate and entirely dissent from. 

 Grow your timber trees so thickly on the ground that the 

 stems are induced to become straight, clean and branch- 



