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CHAPTER 11. 



MAEKING FOE THINNING. 



Upon many estates it is the forester's practice to keep 

 fewer workmen during the hay and harvest months 

 than at any other time of the year, it being arranged 

 that the men are to have the privilege of going to such 

 work in order to earn higher wages, as a set-off against 

 the comparatively low rate paid them during the re- 

 maining part of the year, which is a direct advantage 

 to the men themselves, and probably an indirect 

 one to the estate and the farmers generally. 

 As a consequence, this reduction of the workmen 

 allows the forester an opportunity of attending to 

 other matters more closely and assiduously than he 

 could otherwise do, such as marking wood and timber, 

 valuing, examining, or inspecting the woodlands under 

 his care, all of which requires to be done leisurely and 

 with caution and forethought, when the mind is tran- 

 quil and comparatively free from other cares and con- 

 cerns. As the most important part of that branch of 

 forestry termed " thinning " consists in selecting and 

 marking the trees to be cut, I shall endeavour to point 

 out some of the most essential points to attend to in 

 the art and practice. 



The health of a tree, generally speaking, is very 



