46 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



classes tends to increase height-growth and to diminish the 

 relative size of the crown. On the third class its effects are 

 most felt, and in a few years not only is their side-growth 

 entirely checked, but the crowns of the larger trees gradually 

 overtop the leading shoots, and they become what is known as 

 " suppressed," and henceforth take no part in the struggle. 

 Their place, however, in the composition of the plantation is 

 taken by the smaller trees of the second class, and these in turn 

 become suppressed, and are replaced by the next in size. A 

 constant process of weeding-out is thus continually going on 

 so long as the height -growth of the trees is rapid, and by the 

 time the latter culminates and begins to slacken, the majority 

 of the trees will be long, clean poles with small crowns, the 

 latter having been continually moved up the stem as growth 

 proceeded. A certain proportion of the trees, however, will be 

 stouter and longer in stem and wider and deeper in crown 

 than the rest, being those which have proved themselves 

 the "fittest," and it is to these we must look as constituting 

 the quality and value of the crop. It must not be supposed, 

 however, that the whole of those trees which gave early promise 

 of becomirjg dominant ones have fulfilled that expectation. 

 Gales and other dangers to which the crop is exposed will con- 

 stantly be doing some damage or other, and the dominant tree 

 of one period may not be so of another, although the majority 

 will probably retain their lead to the end. 



The culmination of height-growth marks an important stage 

 in the growth of a plantation, for after it has been reached the 

 composition of the crop is usually fixed or rendered permanent 

 for the remainder of its life, and the further development of the 

 trees (as timber) is principally confined to the thickening of the 

 stems, and (as vegetables or plants) to the widening of the 

 crowns. 



As we have brought our plantation to this stage without 

 artificial aid, we may examine it a little more closely from the 

 sylvicultural standpoint, and see wherein it differs from the 

 ideal. 



To obtain a full crop of good-sized timber it is necessary that 

 the dominant trees at the culmination of height-growth shall be 

 sufficiently numerous, and so regularly distributed over the 

 ground, that their crowns may, after development, form a perfect 



