100 THE NATURE AND PRACTICE 



this period may in the most of instances be far too 

 early ; in fact, no particular period can be specified 

 as to the length of time that a plantation should 

 stand, previous to commencing to thin it ; for in 

 this case, much depends upon the nature of the soil 

 and situation, upon whether or not a plantation may 

 have been well laid out, and upon the state of the 

 ground, as being dry or damp. These things con- 

 sidered, it will appear evident, that no particular 

 time can be stated as to when a plantation should 

 be thinned for the first time ; but that this must 

 be judged entirely by the state of the trees, whe- 

 ther they may have grown rapidly or not. I have 

 myself found it necessary to thin a young planta- 

 tion of seven years' standing, at which age the trees 

 were twelve feet high ; but upon the other hand, I 

 have much oftener seen plantations of fifteen years' 

 standing, scarcely the length of requiring to be 

 thinned : therefore, observation upon the spot is 

 the only sure way of determining this point. 



SECTION V. THE NATURE AND PRACTICE OF 



PRUNING TREES. 



For three or lour years past, many conflicting 

 opinions relative to the pruning of forest trees 

 have been issued in some of the periodicals of the 

 day ; which opinions, I believe, have had more a 

 tendency to darken the point referred to, than to 



