174 



CHAPTER VIII. 



EFFECTS OF THINNING ON ADVANCED HAEDWOOD 

 PLANTATIONS. 



No. 1 is an extensive hardwood plantation on CuUen 

 estate, which had never been thinned up to twenty- 

 five years old. It consists of oak, ash, elm, beech, 

 sycamore, lime, &c. At the age of twenty-five it 

 received a moderate thinning, and from that time to 

 the present (twenty-five years) it has received every 

 possible attention. Some of the trees are over 1 foot 

 diameter, but the greater part are not over 6 inches, 

 and some not even so much. The soil is good, chiefly 

 of a loamy nature, and of a good depth, but somewhat 

 damp. 



The' remarkable disparity of growth amongst the 

 trees impresses one with a desire of knowing the 

 reason why some are so comparatively large and 

 others so very small, being all of the same age and 

 grown on the same soU. The explanation is simply 

 this : Those that were confined, and thereby deprived 

 of their lower branches, are the small ones, while 

 those that had room are large. 



It is a common impression that hardwood trees, 

 though denuded of their branches when young, will 

 recover them after being thinned. That such is not 



