307 

 CONCLUSION. 



Every tree, whether isolated or forming part of a canopied 

 group, is a living entity possessing an individual existeoce. Its 

 species, condition, age, habit, situation, and countless other details 

 combine, to make it a tree diSerent from all others. 



The object to demand from forest trees being in a special 

 manner the wood which they produce, the Forester's duty is obvi- 

 ously so to place promising trees, as to enable them to acquire 

 the most desirable form, dimensions and qualities. At the com- 

 mencement of their existence and during their early years, we can 

 exercise a, marked influence over the form of trees, either by 

 growing them in complete isolation or in continuous leaf-canopy, 

 or by removing some of their branches, or even by straightening 

 them or, on the contrary, bending them to any shape we please. 

 But once they become formed trees or reach the age of complete 

 fertility, they possess a distinct form and habit of their own, 

 which cannot be changed without ruining them. If the trees 

 in question have grown np in complete freedom, with a full and 

 nnhampered crown, they must retain their large branches, or they 

 will languish, contract unsoundness and blemishes, and be doomed 

 to premature decay. Shonld they, on the contrary, have grown 

 up in the midst of a full leaf-canopy, tall and lanky, they could 

 not be isolated without running the greatest risks as respects their 

 bole?, their crowns and their root apparatus. The form they 

 have actually assumed is here again their own, and it is beyond 

 human power to alter it without destroying their vigour and 

 soundness. 



The action of the forester on the formed tree, a vegetable 

 entity endowed with its own peculiar constitution and tempera- 

 ment, ought to be limited simply to placing it under the most 

 fiivourable conditions for developing itself and acquiring its highest 

 qualities, while maintaining it always in a sound state. This 

 action may be exercised on the crown, the bole, and the roots— 

 on the crown, by giving it the room in space and the amount of 

 light it requires ; on the bole, by protecting it by mevjis of the 

 neighbouring trees or the stirrounding underwood ; on the soil. 



