174 



MANAGEMENT OF WOODS. 



and, oil its due performance, the success of every 

 plantation will, in a great measure, depend. 



There is an error which often leads to fatal re- 

 sults, very generally prevalent with regard to this 

 process. It is considered as a cure for an evil that 

 has already taken place, instead of what it in reali- 

 ty only is — a preventive of one that may be anti- 

 cipated. This frequently leads its application to be 

 delayed till it can be no longer useful ; or, to speak 

 more correctly, till it must, of necessity, be attended 

 with effects that are actually pernicious. 



The consequence that ensues from trees being too 

 much crowded upon one another, is the exclusion 

 of a due supply of air, and the result of this is, that 

 they increase in height, without swelling propor- 

 tionably in girth ; or, to express it technically, they 

 are drawn up weak. If they continue long in this 

 state of suffocation, they, in a manner, change their 

 nature. Vegetating, as it were, in the confined at- 

 mosphere of a stove, they lose their native hardiness, 

 and become like tender exotics ; so that they are no 

 longer able to bear the admission of such a quantity of 

 air as would be necessary to restore their vigour. 

 Thinning, applied in such circumstances, instead of 

 promoting recovery, tends only to accelerate dissolu- 

 tion ; yet it is not till these very circumstances have 



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