158 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



reach, so that the man who follows him with the axe will be 

 able to find them readily in the plantation. Only the dead, 

 diseased, weakly, or dominated trees should be marked, and 

 nowhere should a gap be made so wide as to admit the light 

 to the ground between the trees, and the branches of the trees 

 left should much more than meet to prevent that. Of course, 

 in practice, the work cannot always be carried out exactly 

 according to theory, and the marker has to use his discretion ; 

 but, as a rule, when he has any doubt he should leave the tree. 

 When he has finished one strip he should wheel round and 

 take up another, and the marked trees of the first line will be 

 his guide, and so on till he has gone through the plantation. 

 The man whose duty it is to fell the marked trees will then 

 begin where the marker left off, and the marked trees will face 

 him and be easily seen. The thinnings should be cleaned and 

 sorted according to size and quality, and removed to spots 

 where they can be seen and disposed of. First thinnings at 

 this stage will not be very valuable, but of the length of from 

 twenty to thirty feet, from a dense plantation such as is here 

 contemplated, they ought to be of more useful dimensions than 

 can be expected from plantations thinned often and severely 

 on the system hitherto practised. Such thinnings, according 

 to general testimony, seldom pay for the cost of removal, 

 being short, tapering, and rough. A reference to Plate No. 2 

 will show what these rails are like in a forest of Scotch fir. 

 Being branchless almost to the top, smooth, of almost uniform 

 thickness throughout, from two to three inches in diameter 

 and from twenty to thirty feet long, they are useful for fencing 

 and other purposes, and are in good demand in that way. In 

 parks surrounding some of the most palatial castles in Germany, 

 the fences along the avenues are often of spruce rails joined 

 neatly together. As to the small brushwood and tops, unless 

 disease is feared, or it can be sold for firewood, it may be left 

 to decay where it lies. This ends the first thinning, and if it 

 has been properly executed the tops of the trees all over the 

 plantation will have an even and regular appearance and there 

 will be no gaps anywhere. 



The second thinning should be conducted on the same 

 principle as the first, and, if practicable, it should be delayed 

 until the trees have reached measureable pole dimensions of 

 from two-and-a-half to four feet or thereabout. It is the 

 general custom in timber sales in this country to value all poles 

 above one cubic foot and upwards as "timber" at so much per 

 foot, and as the price per foot is usually a great advance on 



