140 FORESTRY WORK 



and the others to serve as a guide to the forester, who 

 can then see at a glance which trees he has already 

 marked, and help him to avoid making mistakes. 



In crowded plantations it is often impossible to use an 

 axe for felling, so use should be made of a heavy bill- 

 hook or a short cross-cut saw the latter for preference. 

 The side-branches should be trimmed off as high as 

 possible while the pole is standing, and the pole then 

 sawn off as close to the ground as possible. 



The branches must be cut off flush with the stem with 

 the axe or bill-hook, and the poles carried or dragged 

 by horses, if too heavy to carry, to the nearest drive, 

 where they should be placed in lots of 50 or 100 and 

 sorted according to size and species. 



After the crop has attained its principal height growth, 

 thinnings or partial clearances are relatively lighter than 

 in the pole stage, and are made to encourage those trees 

 that are to be left as the final crop to increase in girth 

 and volume. 



They should be made from ten to thirty years before 

 the crop is cleared. 



Pruning. 



If a plantation has been kept at a proper density t 

 there should be no need of pruning, but where the canopy 

 has been allowed to become too broken, preventing the 

 side-branches from being killed off naturally, some such 

 aid is necessary to produce good clean timber. 



This applies more to hardwoods than to conifers, the 

 green branches of which should really never be pruned, 



