64 TJtEE CULTUBE IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 



In plantations where the trees are grown purely for the purpose 

 of producing superior timber without reference to shelter to lands 

 beyond, the trees, when they attain a fair size, ought to stand at about 

 one-fourth of their height one from another; — that is, supposing the 

 trees are forty feet in height, they should then be standing ten feet 

 apart. This rule applies chiefly to the Conifer ce and Eucalypti ; and, 

 in the case of deciduous trees, these should stand a little wider apart. 



Where plantations are reared with the view of producing shelter and 

 a second-rate quality of timber at maturity, the trees shotdd be allowed 

 a little more light and air. With these objects in view, therefore, the 

 trees should stand at about one-third of their height from one another. 



While the allowing trees in a plantation to get into an overcrowded 

 condition is highly objectionable, and by all means to be avoided by the 

 grower of good timber, this is not nearly so reprehensible or so injurious 

 to the young crop as sudden and severe thinning. Of course, both cases 

 are thoroughly opposed to sound forestry, still, in the former one a 

 fair crop may still be obtained by careful thinning ; but in that of the 

 latter, the change from the warm crowded and protected condition, into 

 that of a rush of light and air, is so great that the natural •flow of 

 the sap is disarranged to such an extent that disease sets in and general 

 failure is often the result. Besides, should the trees survive such treat- 

 ment, many are sure to be blown over with the winds from the roots not 

 being sufliciently strong to support the plants. 



It is, therefore, a very important point in the management of planta- 

 tions not to allow them to become overcrowded. 



The first indication that a plantation is in want of thinning, is when 

 the young trees show that they are beginning to interfere with one 

 another too much. I find it necessary to use the somewhat ambiguous 

 mode of expression too much, as the interference of the trees with 

 one another's branches, to a certain extent, is necessary in a plan- 

 tation, in order that these lateral gro'^rths may be confined to such an 

 extent only as wUl allow of their continuance on the trees to serve their 

 proper purpose of elaborating the sap and causing increased growth of 

 woody matter, without interfering with the proper development and ex- 

 pansion of the stei".. The lower branches must, therefore, be confined and 

 kept alive for a time until a succession of others come on, which will, of 

 course, be the case as the trees grow upwards. What is required in 

 thinning, therefore, is to watch that the trees are confined to just that 

 particular degree which will prevent the branches interfering with the 

 proper growth of the stem of the tree, and no more. If overcrowding is 

 allowed in a plantation, the branches die ofi too soon, and the trees rush 

 upwards for food and light, thus making length of stem, but not pro- 

 portionate girth. An observant man can always tell when the difEerence 

 between the two stages referred to begins.. 



In thinning, never attempt to keep the trees left standing at exactly 

 the same distance apart one from the other, over the whole ground. 

 It win be found in all plantations, that some trees require more room 

 to develop themselves than others of the same species on perhaps the 

 same piece of ground ; and in order to give such trees a fair chance 



