47$ FOREST PLANTATIONS. 



that it may have all the effects of the winter 

 frofts to reduce and pulverize it. It has elfe- 

 \vhere been obferved, that one fyftem of manage- 

 ment in pitting will not anfwer all foils. 



THINNING YOUNG NEGLECTED PLANTATIONS OF 

 ABOUT TWENTY YEARS OF AGE. 



In January, under this article, we treated of 

 regular thinning of plantations. There we ob- 

 ferved the neceflity of caution in this work ; but 

 if it was necelTary then, it is much more fo now. 



Trees, however hardy their natures may be, 

 which have been reared in a thick plantation, and 

 confequently have been very much fheltered, have 

 their natures fo far changed, that if they be fud- 

 denly expofed to a circulation of air, which, un- 

 der different circum dances, would have been fa- 

 lubrious and ufeful to them, will become fickly, 

 and die. * Hence the neceffity of admitting the 

 air to circulate freely among trees in a thick plan- 

 tation, only gradually, and with great caution. 



To 



* A few years ago, we saw a striking instance of this in 

 a mixed plantation of A sh, Elm, Beech, Oak, &c. The 

 trees were about 25 or SO feet high ; very vigorous and 

 healthy indeed. Nearly one half of their numbrr was re- 

 moved at once m winter. In the following spring, the 

 trees which were left, told the injury they had sustained, 

 by bearing sickly leaves, and few in number : during die 

 summer, they made no progress in growth. The second 

 season they became hidebound and covered with moss j 



1 and 



