METHOD OF THINNINGS. 25 



A complete natural sowing. 



Shelter to the young plants for the first few years. 



Their gradual exposure to meteorological influences. 



2ndly. In proportion as the young trees grow up, 

 their crowns require more room in the air, their roots 

 more space in the soil. It follows then that a certain 

 number amongst them must disappear. This may 

 be observed in any completely stocked forest, the 

 weaker plants succumb to the stronger, and die off 

 one by one, until only a certain number of trees re- 

 main that are capable of living and doing well on a 

 given area. 



At the outset, this struggle between the various 

 individuals does not last long enough to diminish 

 the vigour of the more promising trees, or to injure 

 the quality of their timber. It has, on the contrary, 

 a useful effect, viz., that of cleaning the boles of 

 their lower branches. But later on, when each tree 

 has acquired a certain size, the weaker take a long 

 time in dying off, and hinder the regular develop- 

 ment of their neighbours. From this moment the 

 struggle is injurious, and it becomes imperative to 

 step in and shorten its duration. 



Though, generally speaking, this struggle for life is 

 advantageous to young stock, there are circumstances 

 in which it may become dangerous. Such is the 

 case when softwoods or brushwood, of more rapid 

 growth than hard-wood trees, have crept into the 

 forest, or else when the crop is composed of several 

 valuable species, which it is important to keep grow- 

 ing together, and one of them grows up faster than 

 the rest, and threatens to take possession of the 



