138 THE REARIKG O^ 



being an expensive one, tliey were not allowed 

 strength of men sufficient to keep all right. And 

 I beg here to remark, that proprietors of planta- 

 tions often lose much valuable timber by this state 

 of things being allowed to go on in their planta- 

 tions : it does, no doubt, demand a few more pounds 

 of outla}^ at the time, but ultimately that would be 

 paid to their successors ten times over, from the 

 effects of a superior system of management. 



Supposing that a plantation of young fir trees 

 had been thinned in the manner as above recom- 

 mended, when about twelve years old, the trees 

 would then, probably, be from eight to twelve feet 

 liigh, according to soil and situation ; and sup- 

 posing that the same plantation was then in a fair 

 state of health, and to have continued so for 

 another period, say of eight years from the time 

 that it was first thinned, it would, at the end of 

 this second period, be about twenty years old, with 

 the trees from twelve to twenty feet high, and 

 they would, in all probability, be ready at tliis 

 age for another thinning. In the thinning of the 

 same plantation for a second time, the same prac- 

 tical points relative to the work must in all cases 

 be attended to as have already been recommended 

 for the first thinning : consequently these need 

 not be repeated here again. But there are one or 

 two points Avhich must be observed by the ope- 

 rator in the thinning of plantations at or above 



