156 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



few species of similar habit, is our mixed woods. The species 

 planted are so numerous and these of such wide disparity of 

 habit that any forester might well be puzzled what to do in 

 thinning, where a portion of all the species had to be retained. 

 Indiscriminate mixture is one of the worst faults of forestry 

 in this country. We shall here, however, try to point out what 

 course the forester should choose under such circumstances. 



Age has really very little to do with the matter, and no 

 safe rule can be laid down on that line. Situation and expo- 

 sure makes so much difference to the growth of the trees that 

 it is quite a common thing, even on the same estate, to see 

 plantations of the same age differing so widely in height and 

 density that one might suppose there were years of difference 

 in their ages. The height and condition of the trees should be 

 the thinner's guide. Supposing that we have to deal with a plan- 

 tation of any kind in which the trees were originally planted 

 three or four feet apart, no thinning should be needed till the 

 trees have met, and quite covered the ground, grown, say, to 

 a height of from twenty to twenty-five feet, and become 

 crowded. The guide in thinning should then be first to 

 preserve, in regular distribution, the species intended for the 

 main crop ; and second to preserve an unbroken overhead 

 canopy of branches in every part of the plantation, 

 while, at the same time, every tree left should have its 

 head and shoulders clear up to the light By " head and 

 shoulders," the woodman will understand is meant the leading 

 shoot and two or three tiers of branches below that In a tree 

 twenty feet high, for example, the head and shoulders may 

 represent about five feet, or a quarter of the tree's total height. 

 This is ample, at this early stage, to sustain healthy growth, 

 for it must be remembered that the trees will still, at this stage, 

 be furnished with live branches more or less down to the 

 ground ; and, although these may interlace and be crowded, 

 sufficient light will still filter down to keep them alive as long as 

 they are wanted. The fear of not giving the tree sufficient 

 room is the bugbear that haunts the forester accustomed to 

 severe methods of thinning. There is, however, no danger 

 whatever, especially in healthy growing young plantations, 

 because, should the thinner err on the side of leaving too small 

 a top, the tree will right itself in a couple of years or so. On 

 the Continent great tracts of forest, are to be seen of Scotch 

 fir, spruce and beech, etc., in which the trees are one hundred 

 and twenty feet high and upwards, and of proportionate girth, 

 that never had more than a tuft of branches at their top. from 



