CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The thinning of plantations is such an important 

 branch of forestry, that every opportunity should be 

 taken advantage of to study it and set forth its claims. 



The operations of thinning either confer much good'\ 

 or inflict great evil, according to the skiU. with which 

 they are performed. -^ 



If we study nature carefully, and accurately imiK 

 fate her operations of thinning in the natural forest, 

 we shall do well ; but in this we must be both observ- 

 ant and accurate to the last degree. 



In the natural forest the crop is sown, not all at\ 

 once, as in the nursery ground, but at different times, 

 and therefore the plants come up more or less irregu- 

 lar, those obtaining the precedence keeping and mainji; 

 taining it ; therefore the oldest and furthest advanced i 

 trees keep down and kill the younger ones, which ia, 

 nature's own way of thinning. 



Under peculiar and favourable circumstances small 

 patches of natural forest, whether alder, birch, or Scots 

 pine, will be found of nearly one age and equal growth, 

 being the result of turf -cutting or surface -burning, 

 which admitted the seed depositing itself, and the 

 plants in such groups growing up equal and at. one 



