Part IV.] 
PRUNING AND THINNING. 
[ 215 
No saying is more true, than that “ fools may 
plant , but it requires a wise man to rear timber.” 
More than this, it requires a succession of wise 
men. It is extraordinary that those who by 
practice are annually convinced of the impor¬ 
tance, nay, necessity, of thinning: their turnips no turnips 
' J . . . . without hoeing; 
by hoeing, so often neglect this principle in “octrees with- 
their plantations. The principle should be prac¬ 
tised from the beginning; but if it has been 
neglected ever so long, “ sapere aude, incipe .” 
Nothing has done so much harm to plantations, 
as that “ Oh, it is too late now!” It is never too Never too late 
to thin. 
late. It can never be too late. Can it be too 
late to begin cutting out dead rubbish ? Can 
it do harm to take out what is doing harm ? 
Can the wind be let into plantations by cutting 
out denuded poles without heads ? Go into the 
plantation whose thinning has been put off till 
it is too late , and, I was going to say, boldly , but 
let us say quietly , cut out the dead and the dying 
gross cases of rubbish, and then gradually and 
annually the worst plant worst placed, leaving cut the worst 
and relieving the best plants best placed. He placed ; leave 
^ . . , .,, /, . -a the best plants 
who perseveres on these principles will (besides best placed, 
eventually creating permanent fine plantations) 
very soon, in his present thinnings, be cutting 
boards instead of bavins. 
