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THE THINNING OF WOODS. 



It is only comparatively recently that anything like 

 serious consideration ^tas been given in this country to the 

 growing of timber under economic conditions. Before the 

 days of steamships built of iron and steel the most valuable 

 forests throughout Britain were those, particularly in the 

 South of England, whence were drawn the supplies of Oak 

 for the requirements of the naval dockyards and of the various 

 other centres of shipbuilding activity. The principles which 

 guided planters and landowners in those days were wide 

 planting and large growing-space for each individual tree, 

 so as to permit ramification and the freedom of growth 

 necessary for the production of crooks and curved timber 

 having special value as knee-pieces and ribs in ship- 

 building. 



The isolated position of trees in hedgerows and in parks 

 attained such an object in the fullest possible degree, while 

 in plantations and other woodlands the nearest approach to 

 similar conditions lay in giving each tree a larger amount of 

 growing space than was essential for the maintenance of 

 healthy and energetic growth. At the same time, this 

 method of treatment of timber trees had a much finer 

 aesthetic effect, and gave certain facilities for the rearing of 

 game birds. In this manner it therefore appealed in a 

 special degree to the sporting instincts of British land- 

 owners. The forestry which consequently evolved itself and 

 became established in Britain was Arboriculture," or the 

 cultivation of the individual tree. The root-system was allowed 

 to expand somewhat freely, while the crown of foliage and 

 the branches spread proportionately. To begin w4th, 

 planting was only carried out at comparatively wide 

 distances ; while thinning operations under such circum- 

 stances were undertaken with a much freer hand than would 



