TRAINING. 



351 



four feet, tree from tree, and pinned in Mr. Cree's manner (758) ; then 

 the first thinning should commence when the trees are thirteen feet six 

 inches high, and the trees thinned so as those that remain may stand at 

 twice the former distance from each other, or 8 feet apart each way. The 

 second thinning should take place when they are between 24 and 25 feet 

 high, when the trees should be left so as to be 16 feet apart each way, thus 

 leaving 170 to the acre. The third thinning should take place when the 

 trees are between 47 and 48 feet high, when only 42 trees should be left to 

 the acre to attain the height of 85 feet ; and these must accordingly stand at 

 the distance of 82 feet apart each way. It is not pretended that these rules 

 should in all cases be exactly followed ; on the contrary, they are only given 

 as approximations, the result of extensive experience and scientific reasoning 

 for round-headed trees ; for poplars and coniferous trees, the final distance is 

 too great. See Mr. Cree's table in the Gardeners Magazine for 1841, 

 p. 553, and also some excellent observations on the subject in the Gardeners 

 Chronicle for 1842, p. 19, and in various other parts of that journal and in 

 the Gardener s Magazine. A forester should be well impressed with the 

 importance of light, air, moisture, and shelter as regards vegetation ; and he 

 should closely observe the density which the various trees will bear that are 

 under his charge. In all extensive plantations some trees will be seen suf- 

 fering from being too close : he should learn from cases of the kind how to 

 proceed to thin others that he can easily foresee are approaching a similar 

 condition. As a beau-ideal guide when to commence thinning, we should 

 say. Always about to touch, but never touching. 



783. ITiinning ornamental plantations. — As the object of these is to dis- 

 play the natural character of the trees, either of their heads at a distance, as 

 in masses or groves of trees only, or singly, or in groups of trees among 

 under growths, or on smooth turf, it is obvious that thinning is of as much 

 importance to the desired result as in timber plantations. It is equally so in 

 plantations of shrubs, especially flowering shrubs, where the object is to show 

 the individual character of the shrub, and also the beauty of its blossoms 

 and fruit. Every tree and shrub has two characters, both of which are 

 natural to it ; the one when it grows up in a mass of other trees or shrubs of 

 the same kind, or of other kinds, and the other when it grows up singly. 

 In the former case the stem or stems are always straight and comparatively 

 free from branches to some height, while in the latter it is generally clothed 

 with branches from the ground, or a short distance above it, upwards. The 

 thinning, therefore, of an ornamental plantation will depend on the natural 

 character to be imitated. An open grove where the trees have clear trunks 

 to half or two thirds of their height, affords a delightful retreat for walking 

 in, in the hottest weather of summer ; and this is also the case with an 

 avenue where the trees have been properly thinned and pruned to the 

 height of fifteen feet or twenty feet ; while a lawn studded with trees and 

 shrubs singly or in small groups, and with their lower branches resting on 

 the ground, affords views from a gravel walk or a drawing-room window 

 peculiarly characteristic of an English pleasure-ground. 



§ V. Training, 



784. To train a plant is to support or conduct its stem and branches in some 

 form or position, either natural or artificial, for purposes of use or ornament. It 

 is effected partly by pruning and thinning, but chiefly by pegging down to the 



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