APPLICATION OF THE METHOD. 89 



too thickly, and numerous seedlings are generally 

 the result. All of the same age, and of the same 

 height, they crowd one another from the start, and 

 are generally reduced to their terminal shoot with 

 one or two verticels at the most. 



Under these conditions, they are never vigorous, 

 and often fall victims to defoliation, a disease that 

 shows itself towards the age of three to six years. If 

 they escape this danger they are the more liable to the 

 attacks of the Bostrichus and other insects, which 

 devastate vast areas at once. When passing through 

 these numerous dangers, they have grown up into 

 saplings, we only find trees with narrowed crown and 

 slender roots, and thinnings become almost impos- 

 sible. If they are made light, the trees continue to 

 wither away and never come to anything in the 

 future ; if heavier thinnings are made, the least 

 pressure on the trees suffices to uproot them. 



For this there is only one remedy, viz., to thin 

 out the crop while it is in the thicket stage ; but when 

 we consider that this operation would have to be 

 done on a large scale and would be absolutely unre- 

 munerative, we shall be convinced of its impossi- 

 bility. Thus the finest artificial crops have fallen 

 off after the age of thirty years, without the faintest 

 hope of "future improvement. 



Natural seedlings, on the other hand, less numerous 

 at the outset, are generally completed by fresh falls 

 of seed. The plants being of different heights, do 

 not crowd one another, develop a vigorous crown, 

 and are better capable of resisting defoliation and 

 the ravages of insects. While in the thicket and 



