CHAPTER XXIII. 



ITiinning Woods and Forests. 



While thick planting is absolutely necessary in order to ensure the 

 timber produced being of a superior quality, it is, at the same time, 

 equally as imperative to the successful accompUslrment of this result 

 that the plantations undergo a systematic and periodical course of thin- 

 nings. As thin planting is highly objectionable in a timber-point of view, 

 so in a like manner, and' to a like extent, is the over-crowding of the 

 young trees. How desirable it is then that the forester should be 

 thoroughly and practically acquainted with every detail in the proper 

 management of forest trees. To the ignorance of certain matters, or 

 to the negligence of their performance, I have often traced the failure 

 of plantations. There is, perhaps, no operation connected with forestry 

 which is less properly understood, and which is more generally neglected, 

 than that of thinning. This I have found to be the case in different 

 parts of the world. 



The art of thinning may be described as the application of the know- 

 ledge of the habits, peculiarities, and physiological functions of trees, to 

 a mass of forest or plantation, in such a manner that the proper amount 

 of confinement will be given to the branches, combined with a well- 

 regulated degree of room and air for the proper balance of health, all in 

 such a manner that good, sound, and valuable timber will eventually be 

 produced. 



I shall now endeavor, therefore, to give afew practical hints on the 

 subject, which I trust will be of some service to my readers. 



There can be no rule laid down as to the proper distances apart at which 

 trees should stand one from another at the various stages of their growth. 

 There are no two plantations ever alike in their rate of growth. So 

 much depends upon soil, situation, and aspect, as to whether the growth 

 may be rapid or slow, that of two plantations planted at the same time, 

 but in different parts of the countrj^, one might require thinning when 

 five years of age, while the other could very well do without this until 

 it were ten years old. This is a fact which is well known to practical 

 foresters, and one which I cannot too strongly impress upon my readers. 



Without reference to the ages of the trees, I have often found the fol- 

 lowing rules applicable to the thinmng of plantations imder the various 

 conditions which shall be named. 



