98 THE NATURE AND NECESSITY OF 



more convincing proof of tlie want of sound know- 

 ledge relative to thinning ? If the hard-wood trees 

 had been relieved in due time, would they not at 

 forty years' standing have been valuable, both as 

 timber and as affording shelter? Could not the 

 firs have been all taken out for estate purposes, and 

 been of value to the proprietor, while at the same 

 time they left a more valuable crop of hard wood 

 on the ground? But as the case was, the hard-wood 

 plants were useless, and past recovery ; and upon 

 the ground where a valuable crop of hard wood 

 might have been, there existed only a few firs of 

 little permanent value, either for shelter or as timber. 

 The distance at which trees in a plantation ought 

 to stand one from another, must in all cases be 

 determined by the nature of the soil and situa- 

 tion upon which the trees grow, and also upon the 

 ultimate object the proprietor may have in view 

 as regards any particular plantation ; but as a 

 sort of guiding rule for thinning, I may here 

 state, that if in any particular plantation it should 

 be intended to rear up trees for park or lawn 

 scenery, then, in such a case, the distance between 

 each individual tree ought to be at least equal 

 to the height of the same ; and this rule ought to 

 be kept in view at all stages of the growth of the 

 trees, in order that they may have free room and 

 air to form spreading tops as well as massive 

 trunks, which is the true and natural form of 



