218 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
falls which do not offer fresh stumps as brood- 
places. Like other conifers, the pine stems must 
be barked to obviate danger from bark-beetles, 
otherwise soon increasing in myriads to become 
extremely destructive in the woods, and the timber 
should invariably be removed as soon as possible 
after felling. 
Perhaps the best distance for planting pine, and 
other conifers also, lies between 3 feet by 3 feet 
and 4 feet by 4 feet, plants of 2 to 24 feet in 
height being used. While not unduly expensive, 
this enables the crop to form canopy quickly, 
and it can then yield good, early returns in 
the way of thinning when there is a favourable 
market. As among all other light-demanding 
timber crops, thinning of pines should extend 
to the removal of stems before they become so 
much dominated as to fall into an unhealthy 
condition, else they soon attract beetles. 
Where the soil is light and sandy, sowing will 
often prove the cheapest means of forming pine 
woods for the first time, the land being ploughed 
and sown broadcast, or else prepared in strips 
and sown in rows. Where moor-pan forms an 
impervious subsoil it must be broken through by 
