SUCCESSION CROPS OF OAK. 



255 



the first thinning, the shoots should be left at as re- 

 gular distances from one another as possible round 

 the whole circumference of the stool. 



Pruning will require to be performed once every 

 two years, as in a common plantation ; and the fores- 

 ter must exercise his own judgment in thinning by 

 degrees, as may be found necessary, till the number 

 of stools and young trees be equal. As soon as one 

 of the latter appears capable of exhausting all the 

 nourishment that one of the former can supply, it 

 is time for this equality to take place ; but the pre- 

 cise period cannot be stated, as it will vary under 

 different circumstances, and can be determined sole- 

 ly by the state of the plantation in each particular 

 case. Whenever the wavers , (as the shoots put 

 forth by oak-stools and regularly trained with the 

 view of letting them grow to the size of timber are 

 sometimes called), become so thick as to exclude a 

 proper supply of air, and consequently draw each 

 other up weak, they must of course be thinned, with- 

 out regard to what number the stools may be cap- 

 able of nourishing. 



Some writers tell us that a single stool will be 

 able to bring several shoots to the size of trees, and 

 recommend that more than one shoot be accordingly 

 left. That the fact is true, in certain cases, not only of 



