ACCOUNT GIVEN BY BOITEL. 47 



selves easily, and protect one another in the pineries which have been 

 moderately thinned during the first twenty years of their growth. 

 Beyond this general observation it is difficult to lay down precise 

 rules in regard to the best means of executing thinnings. If germina- 

 tion have produced many more seedlings than was expected, it will 

 do good to remove, by hand, a certain number of these at the age of 

 3 or 4 years, or as soon as they ai'e seen to be injuring and starving 

 one another ; on the contrary, in a sowing which has come up badly, 

 and which does not sufficiently cover the ground, the first thinning 

 should be deferred till they have attained the age of 15 or 16 years. 

 In ordinary circumstances pines require to be thinned when they 

 have reached the age of 7 or 8 years. At this age the expense of the 

 operation may be covered by the produce in faggots and charcoal 

 wood. But in every case it is less the value of the produce than the 

 future of the pines which should determine the time at which this 

 first operation is to take place. That man would ill understand his 

 own interests, and would imperil the continued existence of, and the 

 revenue to be derived from, a young crop of seedling pine, who did 

 not clear it of diseased and dying plants, on the ground that the 

 expense of the work would not be entirely covered by the sale of the 

 produce of the first thinning. 



" The subsequent thinnings, eclaircies, as they are technically called 

 in France, are determined by the kind of products which it is desired 

 to obtain, regard being had to the nature of the soil and the state of 

 the markets. In Sologne, for example, where the maritime pine does 

 not grow well above 25 years, but where it furnishes faggots, for 

 which there is a ready sale in Paris and Orleans, it is subjected to 

 periodical moderate thinnings, carried out much as are the fellings 

 of the coppice wood of deciduous trees. On a deep and firm sand where 

 the maritime pine may form a timber forest fit for tapping, for resin, 

 and for the production of workable timber, the earlier thinnings ought 

 to be somewhat more energetic, in order that they may favour more 

 especially the trees destined to form the standing wood. 



" In any case there is a risk of disappointment if there be a lack of 

 prudence and moderation in the management of these successive 

 thinnings. The maritime pine is a tree which, especially in youth, 

 is very sensitive to cold winds, to hail, and to coups de soleil ; it 

 suffers greatly when, by excessive clearing or thinning, it is exposed 

 suddenly and extensively to the air and the heat of which it has been 

 deprived. 



" Growu up piuea of a slender trunk, terminating in a heavy and 



