62 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



SECTION IV. — CULTURAL METHODS TO BE ADOPTED FOR 

 THE WOODS AND PLANTATIONS. 



What the owner has to decide here is the method of 

 cropping and culture to which his woods shall be subjected, 

 with the object of producing profitable crops of timber, if 

 necessary in conjunction with game and sport. By culture 

 and cropping is meant everything pertaining to the actual 

 management of the trees in the plantations, from the time they 

 are sown or planted until the crop is reaped, and includes the 

 raising and preparation of the trees in the nursery, the age 

 and size at which the trees shall be finally planted out, as far 

 as that is practicable, the season of the year at which the 

 different species shall be planted, the method of planting, and 

 the times and conditions under which any thinning shall be 

 begun and conducted until the crop has reached maturity — all 

 of which will be specially dealt with in the chapter devoted to 

 these topics. The principles on which all these conditions , and 

 operations are based are of almost universal application, and 

 are easily mastered by the forester whose instructions, as to 

 the general system to be pursued, should be definite and 

 clear. Without adherence- to guiding principles of culture, 

 neither methodical practice nor continuity of plan is possible, 

 and the want of both has been the great drawback in the past. 



SECTION V.— CONTROL AND GENERAL ROUTINE OF 

 MANAGEMENT. 



By control is meant the general superintendence of the 

 woods and game preserves on an estate subject to the general 

 estate supervision ; and by routine of management is meant 

 the ordering of the work throughout the year. The full 

 control should be vested in the head forester, whose duty 

 should be to keep all books, collect accounts, arrange the work 

 of the staff, prepare plans of work proposed to be executed 

 annually in the woods, and estimates of expenditure and 

 income, etc., etc. Keeping a correct debtor and creditor 

 account is one of the forester's most important duties, because, 

 without that, his employer cannot possibly know how his 

 woods stand. This applies as much to estate accounts and 

 charges as to outside transactions in forest produce. It is easy 

 to do this, but in too many cases correct accounts are not kept. 



