THE NEW FORESTRY. 41 



on all woodlands — and on properties ; between thinning plan- 

 tations on extensive properties — and on small properties ; 

 between oak plantations — and hard-wood plantations ; between 

 pine, larch and fir plantations — and pine plantations ; and 

 between fir plantations — and larch plantations ; confusing 

 and complicating in purely fanciful distinctions a practice in 

 which the same general rule applies under all circumstances. 



Trees, not timber, was what Brown was apparently thinking 

 of. He assumed that the biggest tree, trunk and limbs, was 

 the best, and that the tree that was allowed ample space ,in 

 every way to develop to its fullest extent attained to the 

 greatest size in the shortest time, and secured the desired end. 

 This argument, ^applied in principle to plantation culture, 

 necessarily leads to thin planting, wrong mixtures, early and 

 frequent thinnings, and free lateral growth in the trees left; 

 but, so far as the production of timber is concerned, either as 

 regards quantity or quality, the reasoning is quite fallacious. 

 It is true that trees grown as described do, individually, 

 increase in bulk, including branches, more quickly than they 

 do when crowded together ; but it is equally certain, first, that 

 fir trees, so grown, owing to excessive branch development, 

 are too rough and tapering to yield good stems of useful 

 dimensions ; and that broad-leaved trees are spent in the pro- 

 duction of far too great a proportion of small top wood of little 

 or no value, instead of in trunk volume, and, second, that such 

 trees produce the least quantity of timber to the acre because 

 they take up more room, proportionately, than several trees of 

 lesser size and better quality would occupy grown closely 

 together. 



The proofs of Brown's practice are scattered throughout 

 " The Forester." Whenever we have been consulted by owners 

 of woods we have been met by Brown's teachings on the 

 subject of thinning and nursing, both inimical to . good 

 forestry. The opinion is almost universal among owners of 

 woods that as soon as a plantation gets crowded it is going to 

 ruin, whereas it is just in the condition it should be. Brown's 

 advice, as regards planting generally, is, that in high-lying 

 exposed situations, three-and-a-half feet should be allowed 

 between the plants, and in sheltered spots, four to five feet. 

 " On low-lying and naturally sheltered parts of the country," 

 he recommends hard-woods to be planted five yards apart, the 

 space between to be made up with temporary nurses " to five 

 feet over all ; " and on exposed situations for pine and larch 

 from three-and-a-half to four feet. This is thinning to begin 



