The distance at which the plants shall be put in, is more a matter of opinion than some planters would be inclined to admit. For myself, I am disposed to think, that some advantages are lost to a Plantation, under certain combinations of soil and circumstances, when it is planted thickly, but I would not either rate the loss too highly, or express my opinion, with unseemly positiveness: my notion is, that the supposed advantages of planting thickly may generally be supplied by early, judicious pruning, and that the progress of the Plantation would be facilitated thereby: that, in fact, a Plantation of trees at a distance of three feet, being properly assorted, having had a good start, and suitable treatment in all respects afterwards, would reach any given point as to size, and quality, in less time than would another Plantation, upon the same soil, if the method of either sowing acorns, &c., or planting very thickly, were adopted. In saying this, I by no means wish to condemn the practice of thick planting; to do this, in the face of proofs of success, such as I have described as existing in this country, would be an absurdity of which I would not willingly be guilty; but at the same time, I would not hesitate to range myself among those who prefer, under ordinary circumstances, to plant at a moderate distance, and rely upon early pruning, for securing the object which the close planter has in view, viz., length of bole, or stem, and clearness of grain.
I come now to remark upon the
Present mode of managing Plantations after they are made.
Abiding still, most strictly, by the rule laid down for myself, to deal with every part of my subject practically, I proceed to observe, that the instances where Plantations are treated with due regard to the principles of Arboricultural science, are not the rule, but the exceptions to the rule, as every scientific planter, who has looked round him, must know.
Instead of the trees intended for timber being nursed with the tenderest care from their infancy—instead of their being treated according to the known and fixed laws which regulate, and effectually control, the economy of vegetable life, whether men attend to them or not—they too frequently meet with treatment which is in direct opposition to those laws. I shall show this as clearly, and as plainly, as I can.
When a gentleman has decided to plant, when he has fixed upon the right mode of doing it, and has finished it in a proper manner; so far he has done all that could be expected from him; but if, after this, he leaves his Plantation to itself for five, ten, or fifteen years, he transgresses the laws to which I have referred; and his error is one of omission.
Again: were the same gentleman, after the lapse of ten years, or even less, to enter his Plantation, and cut and thin very freely, he would violate those laws by an error of commission, and in this case, as well as the other, the Plantation would very materially suffer.
A Plantation which should be subjected, at so early a stage of its existence as ten or fifteen years, to the ordeal of both these classes of errors, could have but little chance of succeeding: it could not be expected to make any more than very slow progress after such treatment as this: and yet this is exactly the way in which many Plantations are managed, at all stages of their growth. I have recently met with a splendid Larch Plantation, which has never been thinned, from the first, except by “fits and starts”; of which injudicious treatment, I could see very serious “outward and visible signs.” Although it is upon exceedingly weak and poor land, it would have produced, if it had been properly managed, a fine class of Larches, which would have yielded to the proprietor an abundant return upon his outlay. If any one doubt this, let him look around and see if he cannot find a Plantation of forty or fifty years growth, which is crowded with trees—say of Larch only—and he will, upon examination, perceive that there are two or three distinct classes of trees still standing, all of which ought, long before, to have been taken out; and that there is but one class of Larches, probably, which should be standing. The other two classes which I have just mentioned, would be found, if the fact could be clearly come at, very nearly of the same size as they had been many years before; inasmuch as they could not possibly make any wood, being themselves overtopped by their more thriving and vigorous neighbours. It is perfectly obvious too, that the injury arising to the Plantation would not stop here. So long as under-strappers were allowed to remain, they would, to a certain extent, have the effect of preventing the admission of light and air into the Plantation, which would materially affect the health and the progress of the standard trees.
The errors of omission are both serious and numerous: those of commission, great though they be, are not equally so. The former are generally first in the order of time, for where one Plantation is injured from too early thinning, there are ten that suffer for the want of it; and this early neglect affects the vitality and prosperity of a Plantation much more than might be supposed. Omitting to do what ought to be done will, however, be very prejudicial to the health of Plantations at any stage of their existence, and it is quite well known to the experienced Forester, that they ought ever to be watched with most tender care, until the planter is fully satisfied that he has completed the nursing and training of a sufficient number of standard trees, to furnish the ultimate crop.
But errors of omission sometimes admit of remedy; whereas, if injury is committed by excessive thinning, or by cutting down trees which ought to have remained, it is often difficult, and sometimes impossible, to repair the mischief that is done. Both the errors to which I have alluded, must be avoided by the planter who would desire to have a healthy and continuously thriving Plantation.