The treatment which a Plantation ought to receive, may be comprised in a very few words. The principals will require pruning from an early period after being planted, and the pruning must be continued, more or less, according to circumstances, either every year or every alternate year, until it is from fifteen to twenty years old; and, during the same period, a small portion of _thinning_ will probably be required. As to the _nurses_, they must be watched constantly after the fourth year, and they must be treated with sole reference to the prosperity of the other trees; _they_ may, therefore, be pruned, or lopped in any way that will best subserve that end. Of course I am now speaking of Plantations where the trees are not put nearer to each other than three feet, and when, in consequence, they must have _artificial_ pruning. In cases where pruning begins _soon enough_, the question which has been raised as to the manner of doing it—whether by _close_ pruning, _snag_ pruning, or fore-shortening—will not apply. All the principals should be _close pruned_ with a sharp instrument, care being taken not to wound the bark too extensively. The principle to be kept in view at all times, when dealing with a Plantation, is, _to subject it to no sudden changes_, but when pruning is found to be insufficient, to commence a course of _gradual thinning_, which shall not, in any considerable degree, at any period, _disturb the temperature of the Plantation_. If this point be duly attended to, and a sound judgment be exercised in selecting the principals, the planter’s most sanguine expectations will not be disappointed. So far as I have ventured to offer suggestions for the _proper_ management of Plantations, I have intended them to apply to such as are not over twenty years of age; but it is well known to all who concern themselves in such matters, that a class of Plantations ranging above that age, up to forty or fifty, may be met with in various localities, which stands much in need of better “management.” In all cases of great neglect, which has been continued more than twenty years, the nicest judgment is necessary. The difficulty is, however, always in proportion to the _degree_ of neglect. Where the trees have been put in thickly, and nothing, or almost nothing, has been done, little can be expected even from the most judicious treatment; but still the means ought to be tried, for one thing is quite certain, viz., that the longer remedial steps are put off, the less chance there must be of their doing any good.