METHOD OF THINNINGS. 27 



PRIMARY CUTTINGS. The primary cutting ought to 

 realize the first three conditions mentioned above 

 viz., the maintenance of a free and rich soil, the 

 certainty of a complete sowing, and shelter to 

 the young plants during their infancy. 



It is under trees forming together a continuous 

 leaf-canopy that the richest and freest soil is to be 

 found ; and it is the same kind of crop, when the trees 

 that compose it are old but not verging into decay, 

 that produces the best and greatest quantity of seed. 

 But though the seeds germinate, it may happen, on 

 the other hand, that the young plants will not live 

 under this leaf-canopy for want of sufficient light ; 

 nay, if the parent tree possesses a very dense foliage, 

 it is quite possible that there will not be enough heat 

 for even germination to take place, and the seed has 

 fallen uselessly on the ground. We are thus com- 

 pelled to open out the leaf-canopy here and there on 

 making the primary cutting. The extent to which 

 the leaf-canopy should be thus interrupted must 

 depend on the state of the soil, climatic conditions, 

 and the constitution of the young seedlings (hardy or 

 delicate), and no hard and fast rule can be laid down 

 on the subject. We may distinguish, however, two 

 methods of making the-primary cutting, and they are 

 termed respectively the open and the close cutting. 



A primary cutting is said to be close if the side 

 branches of the reserves touch each other when 

 swayed about by the wind. This definition is of the 

 greatest importance, and in practice must be carried 

 out to the letter whenever the necessity of such a 

 cutting is clearly indicated by natural facts. 



