88 ON THINNING PLANTATIONS. 
seedlings, and partly one and two years transplanted; the 
other third was of larch of various ages, and all were inserted 
at the distance of four feet apart, and planted by contract at 
20s. per acre; no upmaking was required for years, until the 
furze became strong, caught fire, and occasioned a small blank. 
This plantation became quite vigorous, especially just after it 
formed a cover and subdued the natural vegetation on the 
surface, thus converting the whole energies of the soil to its 
development. At the age of fifteen or sixteen years, thinning 
was very much required, as the trees had become crowded. 
It was at the age of eighteen and twenty, however, before the 
first thinnings were made by the forester on the property, 
and then it was not the more feeble and worthless that were 
removed ; the primary objects appeared to be the obtaining 
of wood for a special purpose and the raising of money—not 
the relief and future well-being of the plantation. It has 
been thinned again and again for timber for paling, prop- 
wood, and for sale. The value of the timber removed is 
unknown, as much of it was cut down for country purposes 
and was not valued. I have not unfrequently witnessed with 
regret the same sort of procedure in woods more matured 
and consequently more profitable; the great profit of the 
future being sometimes sacrificed for a small sum to meet the 
present necessity. In the present case, however, no such 
necessity existed ; the wood belongs to a wealthy corporation ; 
yet just as the trees assumed a timber size of small value, 
though suitable for the present purpose, they were struck 
down as a gardener thins his asparagus bed in spring. The 
trees which should have been first removed, now for the most 
part fill the ground, unshapely and stunted, and the future of 
the plantation is dwarfed for ever. I have before seen the 
effects of such treatment both on Scotch fir and larch. 
A proprietor who inherited an estate which he had seldom 
or never previously seen, was averse to the planting of Scotch 
pine, because woods composed of the tree sixty or seventy 
years of age scarcely produced a tree fit for railway sleepers, 
and not suspecting the early treatment of the trees, he con- 
