THINNING ON ADVANCED PINE PLANTATIONS. 159 



cylinder. The cause of the latter change is partly due to 

 the increase of -woody deposit near to the live branches, 

 and decrease of it where the branches have withered 

 and fallen off. During this stage of growth, on dis- 

 secting a tree, it is found that the zones of wood near 

 the vital branches of pine and hardwood trees are 

 much thicker than at a distance from them, and the 

 further distant the thinner they are. Every possible 

 effort should be made in the thinning of plantations to 

 preserve the proper quantity of live branches upon 

 each individual tree, for if once the vitality is destroyed, 

 the best future skiU will be powerless in restoring it. 

 Another reason for early thinning is in order not at 

 any time to check the growth of the trees ; for it must 

 always be borne in mind that the immediate direct 

 effect of thinning is to check the growth of standing 

 trees, and this is done in at least two different 

 ways. 



It is very consoling to be told that if thinning is 

 done gently, no evils will result from 'it. The most' 

 gentle mode of thinning that can be practised, is to 

 cut down the one tree that stands too close to another. 

 If many such trees are cut the thinning may be 

 termed severe ; and if only a few are cut, it may be 

 termed gentle or light thinning. With words and 

 terms, however, others may do as they please, but with 

 us, from the sad effects produced upon the standing tree, 

 we have something more to say, and some inquiries to 

 make. When two trees have grown up side by side for^ 

 many, or it may be only a few years, they have formed 

 such an affinity for each other that separation becomes 

 a painful and dangerous ordeal, so far as trees can be 

 imagined to sympathise with or feel for each other, i^ 



Whether trees are affected through feelings or not 



