METHOD OF VALUING GROWING TIMBER. ] g^ 



This competition roust, however, be judiciously mode- and timely 

 rated by timely thiniiii:^-; always keeping the trees suffi- ^'^'""'"S' 

 ciently stiong in the steni, Tf they be suffer^>d to stand some 

 years too near each other, thi-ir stems will become weak, and 

 bend under their small tc>us when thinned. Wiiere this has 

 taken place in only a smal degree, they will make but little 

 progress for some years afteward. 



By the time the trees have advanced to 24 or 30 feet high After a time 



this competition should cease, if they are intended to be cut ^'™"i ^^°^ 



f^ •' branches ne- 



down at or before 60 years of age ; and they should then be cessary. 



encouraged to extend their tops more in width than in 

 height, strong side branches being apparently quite as con* 

 ducive as the leading shoot, to the vigorous growth of the 

 bole below them. After this period, the best rule for thin- 

 ning will probably be, to leave a clear space around the top 

 of each tree, in which the branches may extend themselves 

 without obstruction. A tree the top of which is 20 feet dia- 

 meter, receives four times the benefit from air, rain, and 

 dew, that another does, the top of which is only 10 feet 

 diameter. 



The trees in the interior of young woods are smaller in Outer trees of a 

 their boles than the exterior trees. And in a fine oak wood, '^ 



of about 40 acres, divided into squares by several avenues 

 or ridings crossing each other at right angles, I observed 

 the rows of trees next the avenues much thicker in their 

 boles than the trees in the interior of the squares ; owing, 

 no doubt, to their having more and larger branches in con- 

 sequence of their having more room, although it is only on 

 one side, 



3eing too parsimonious of ground seems to me a great Advantage of 

 and very general errour. If the same number of trees of ^'^i" woods. 

 32 feet high and upwards, in Table VI, were allowed the 

 space of two acres instead of one; and, in consequence of 

 their standing thinner, were to increase annually only the 

 fiftieth part of an inch more in girt, than they would do if 

 they stood on one acre, this small additional increase in girt 

 would pay an ample rent for the additional acre. 



In the year 1791 a paper of Observations on the Propa- 

 gation and Management of Oak Trees in general, but more 



particularly 



