386 THE BOOK OF THE LANDED ESTATE. 



quite free of each other, so as to allow each specimen to develop itself 

 fully. 



The extent of thinning to be carried out in any plantation must 

 depend in a great measure upon its situation and exposure, and also 

 upon the character of the soil, and the nature and character of the, 

 crop. 



In a case of thinning neglected plantations, it will often be found 

 impossible to leave the trees at regular distances. Some years ago I 

 received the management of a considerable extent of mixed hardwood 

 plantations in the county of York. The crop was copsewood, grown 

 from the old stocks. At the time I commenced operations the trees 

 were about twenty-five years old ; and during the whole period from 

 the time of their first year's growth till they were twenty-five years 

 old, very little had been done to them in the way of thinning. Some 

 portions had been certainly- thinned where the timber could be easily 

 got at, but this had been overdone, as large gaps had been left in the 

 wood. Over the greater portion of the plantations there would be an 

 average of four trees on each stock. The crop consisted chiefly of oak, 

 ash, elm, and sycamore. In the course of the first thinning, I took only 

 the very smallest, weakest, and most unhealthy of the crop, still leaving 

 a large thick crop on the ground ; but in this case the trees had been 

 crowded, and were drawn up, and consequently great caution had to be 

 used at first in thinning them, so that instead of taking a large mimber 

 out at one time, I decided upon taking out only a few at each thinning, 

 and to thin at short intervals. Accordingly I thinned them again in 

 two years from the time the first thinning had been carried out. On 

 the next occasion, I thinned the shoots amongst themselves, taking out 

 the weakest and those most likely to make the least progress ; and, 

 generally speaking, the ash and elm were taken out in preference to the 

 oak and sycamore on the lowest portions of the plantations, and where 

 the soil was of the best quality. On the higher grounds, and where the 

 soil was not so good, I preferred leaving the ash, elm, and sycamore as 

 the crop, and took out the oak instead. 



These plantations were again thinned in three years from the 

 time the second operation was conducted, and were done on the 

 same principle as already stated in reference to the second thinning 

 leaving at each thinning the trees just touching each other, but no 

 more. 



These plantations have yielded a large income since the thinning 

 operations have been commenced; and the result at the present time 

 is, that the crops now are worth fully double the value they were in the 

 year when the first thinnings were made, and they are in a healthy 



