156 THE REARING OF 



few should be taken out now and then, without 

 much respect to stated intervals, wherever they 

 may have the appearance of being too close one 

 upon another. And this should be gradually done 

 till the plantation is about forty-five years old, 

 when it should have a final thinning, making every 

 individual tree stand as nearly as possible free of 

 its neighbour ; and in this state, the trees may be 

 allowed to stand until they attain perfect maturity, 

 which, with the generality of trees, is about sixty- 

 five years old, when they may be either cut down 

 or allowed to stand, according as the taste or in- 

 clination of the proprietor may suggest ; but where 

 valuable timber is the object of the proprietor, the 

 trees should be used as such when between sixty 

 and seventy years old. 



In all cases, during the progress of rearing up 

 hard-wood for timber in a forest, where pruning 

 may be found necessary, let that be done one or tAVo 

 years previous to commencing any thinning opera- 

 tions. The reason for this advice I have explained 

 already ; and were this point properly attended to, 

 we would soon see a great improvement in the 

 quality of our timber trees. 



There is also the case of neglected hard-wood 

 plantations to be taken into consideration ; and, in- 

 deed, cases of this nature too often come under the 

 observation of the forester who may have extensive 

 practice. In many cases I have had to deal with 



