RECLAIMING PLANTATIONS, &C. 487 



this age onwards to twenty years, without being 

 both pruned and thinned, certainly deferve to be 

 termed neglected ; becaufe they will have num- 

 berlefs dead branches, or rather flumps, left flick- 

 ing in their boles ; which afterwards make la- 

 mentable blemifhes in the timber; and many of the 

 trees will be fo fmall and enfeebled, by the want of 

 air, that they will prove good for nothing. Such 

 plantations, therefore, as are already twenty years of 

 age> and have not been thinned, are certainly in a 

 flate which requires immediate attention. At this 

 age, they may be thinned out the firfl year, after 

 commencing the work, to five feet diflance ; and, 

 in the next, to fix feet apart, being particularly 

 careful not to expofe them too much at once ; 

 and, within the next ten years, they may be oc- 

 cafionally thinned out, till they fland from nine 

 to tvrelve feet apart, according to the vigour of 

 the plants, the quality of the foil, and the expofed 

 or flickered nature of the fituation. But, during 

 this time, an annual attention to prune off fuch 

 laterals as are unnecefTary is indifpenfable. 



Plantations, of thirty or forty years of age, 

 which have been fuffered to run into diforder, 

 mufl be treated with flill more caution in thin- 

 ning. Their forlorn condition bas been the con- 

 fequence of many years neglecl: ; and they mufl 

 not be expected to be fuddenly reclaimed. In 

 the firfl year, remove only the fmall overridden 



plants ; 



