178 REARING UP AND THINNING 



In fact, after this period, the whole plantation 

 throve remarkably well, and the oaks kept pace 

 with the firs during all the time that they stood 

 among them ; but in a few years they were mostly 

 cut down again in order to give the oaks room as 

 they advanced. 



Now, from this example, I would draw the atten- 

 tion of the planter to the great necessity, in all 

 cases, of planting firs among oaks in order to nurse 

 them up while in their young and tender state, 

 and having the firs thinned out by degrees as the 

 oaks advance in strength. 



Having pruned the young trees in the plantation 

 of oaks in the manner formerly referred to, and that 

 two years previous to requiring any thinning of the 

 firs from among them, the next step in the rearing of 

 such a plantation is to thin away any firs as soon as 

 they encroach upon the oak plants ; and this thinning 

 of the firs, in the rearing up of oak plantations, must 

 at all times be more severe than when thinning 

 away firs from among the common kinds of hard- 

 wood. And, indeed, this particular forms the only 

 difference worth mentioning between the cultiva- 

 tion of the oak and the cultivation of hard-wood in 

 general ; that is, the oak-trees, after they are once 

 properly established in the ground, and brought 

 into proper shape by a judicious pruning, must, 

 through the whole course of their culture after- 

 wards, have more room and air than any other 



