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CHAPTER IV. 



VARIABLE EFFECTS OF THINNING. 



An example of the injurious effects of thinning a 

 Scots fir plantation came under our observation in 

 Morayshire a few years ago. The plantation was 

 between thirty and forty years old, and the soil a dry 

 gravelly one, with a herbage of short heather. At 

 about twelve years old it had received what appears 

 to have been a fair thinning, rather under than over- 

 done, and probably no other thinning had been done 

 till shortly before the time we saw it. The appear- 

 ance it presented at the time was that of a very sickly 

 slow-growing plantation ; the foliage was short, clus- 

 tered, and of a pale light-green colour. The forester 

 in charge became alarmed at the appearance of the 

 trees, thinking they were all about to die, and was 

 not a little cheered when we assured him that it was 

 only the effects of recent thinning, and that if he 

 allowed the plantation to remain undisturbed for a 

 few years it would again recover. The injuries in-\ 

 flicted were through the pores becoming dried up by 

 reason of the heating of the ground. What we re- 

 commended was, in the first place, to cease grazing in 

 the plantation, so as to allow as much herbage to 

 grow up as possible, and also to allow the dead 



