WOODS AND PLANTATIONS. 383 



those which are destitute of leaves. If leaves are stripped from a plant 

 before the fruit has commenced ripening, the fruit will fall off and not 

 ripen. If a branch is deprived of leaves for a whole summer, it will 

 either die or not increase in size perceptibly." 



Since this is the case, it must be very wrong to keep trees crowded 

 amongst themselves, so as to prevent the leaves from growing. If we 

 examine any plantation where the trees are all of an equal size and age, 

 and growing on similar soil, we are almost certain to find that the largest 

 trees are those which are situated on the outside of the plantation, or 

 where they have had ample room to spread out their branches ; and in 

 a case of this kind it will be found that any trees which have had ample 

 space to develop themselves will contain much more timber than those 

 in the heart of the plantation, which, from being kept in a crowded 

 state, are tall, drawn-xip poles, with a few branches at the top. I con- 

 sider it just as impossible for a tree deprived of the greater portion of 

 its leaves to grow healthy and fast as for any person to undergo much 

 exertion with a portion of his lungs gone. 



It is a great error in the management of our woods and plantations to 

 have them so generally kept in a crowded condition ; and yet, after 

 all that is known and taught us by vegetable physiology, we still find 

 the greater portion of the woods and plantations in this country kept 

 much crowded. There is no doubt that the larch disease is, if not 

 caused by close crowding, at all events accelerated by confinement. 



But, laying aside these considerations altogether, it is surprising that 

 the increased growth in a properly-thinned plantation does not induce 

 the proprietors of crowded plantations to have them properly attended 

 to ; and there is, besides, the value received for the thinnings to be taken 

 into account. 



As an instance of the importance of. thinning plantations, I may 

 mention two cases, in one of which two hundred and seventy acres of 

 plantation, consisting of a crop of mixed hardwoods, was in 1861 valued 

 at 4473. The trees were thinned in 1862, again in 1864, and again in 

 1866, when they were again valued in 1867, and the valuation amounted 

 to 7694. The crop had thus made an increase in value, independent of 

 the thinnings, of 3221 ; and the thinnings taken from the plantation 

 during the years named amounted to nearly 3 per acre per annum. 



In the other case, one hundred and forty-three acres of oak timber 

 were valued at the sum of 4000 in the spring of 1863. The crop was 

 thinned the same year, and again in 1866, and in the autumn of 1867 

 the standing crop was valued at the sum of 5801. These valuations 

 were done at both times by two disinterested parties, and show the 

 importance of attending to plantations regularly. 



