THE QUALITY OF CONIFEROUS TIMBER. 



109 



on a Larch-tree would not be changed were the branch suddenly 

 transformed into oak or hon. Prunmg is one way by which 

 dead branches may be got rid of, but, on account of the labour 

 involved, this method cannot be profitably adopted in dealing 

 with trees on a large scale. It is distinctly an arboricultural as 

 opposed to a sylvicultural operation. The same good effects 

 may, however, be secured by crowding the woods in youth, and 

 so killing the lower branches while they are still of small 

 dimensions. If this be attended to, the dead branches will not 

 long remain attached to the trees, but, decaying, will soon drop 

 off under their own weight. 



The amount of crowding that wiU clean the stem of the Larch 

 or Scotch Pine will not be sufficient to secure the same result in 

 the case of the Silver Fir or the Spruce. This is owing to the 

 fact that the leaves and branches of the latter trees will remain 

 alive under conditions as regards light that would speedily prove 

 fatal to those of more light-demanding trees. It is therefore less 

 necessary to crowd woods composed of light- demanding trees, 

 and not only so, but it would also be very bad practice to do this. 

 In order to show normal development the crown of a Scotch Pine, 

 for instance, must be in the enjoyment of more space, and there- 

 fore of more light, than such trees as the Silver Fir or Spruce. 

 Investigations carefully conducted in Germany show that for a 

 situation that suits the various species equally well, one may, at 

 the age of thirty years, have 100 Silver Firs on an area that 

 would offer sufficient growing space to only 91 Spruces or 

 64 Scotch Pines ; while at the age of sixty years the proportions 

 would be 100, 75 and 56. 



Then, as regards the situation, more trees will find room on 

 a certain area for any given age the less favourable all the 

 conditions are for tree-growth. This follows from the fact that 

 the poorer . the locality so much the less luxuriantly will the 

 individual trees be developed. Thus, in the case of the Scotch 

 Pine (according to Weise), at the age of thirty years the number 

 of trees on a given area of a third- class locality should be 100, 

 for a second-class locality 75, and for a first-class locality 

 only 47. 



Not only does a considerable degree of closeness in woods 

 tend to the production of timber with the minimum number and 

 size of knots, but it is also the only practicable means at the 



