To produce ornamental trees of natural appearance is by no means difficult, as by allowing the individual specimens ample room for branch development, the desired effect is gradually brought about. Far greater difficulty, however, attends the production of the greatest quantity of the most valuable trees on a given space of ground. Here many questions of the greatest moment, on which difference of opinion exists, crop up: such as at what age thinning should be commenced, to what extent should it be engaged in, what time should elapse between each thinning, and which trees should be removed. [Illustration: FELLING TOOLS.] Any one at all interested in the management of our woods and plantations must have noticed that trees having an abundance of room and light on all sides make comparatively short and thick trunks that are well furnished with branches; whereas such as are grown up in a circumscribed space and amongst others are tall and straight, with clean, well-formed stems destitute of branches for the greater part of their height. All species, or nearly all, are governed by the same laws, that is to say, those that have the least room laterally within certain prescribed limits, which will be described hereafter, produce the tallest, cleanest and straightest trunks, and vice versa. The influence of light has not, in this country at least, been sufficiently taken into account in the rearing of timber, but it has everything to do in directing the growth of trees, and should be reckoned as a most important factor by the forester. Thus, if it be allowed in excess, as when the trees stand far apart, the growth of lateral shoots and large branches will be greatly induced, the result being short and thick boles, that are rough and knotty, and ill-adapted for constructive purposes. On the other hand, by keeping the trees thick on the ground, light is, to a greater or less extent, excluded, and the trees grow tall, straight and branchless for the greater part of their height, and are of the greatest economic value. But here another and very important question crops up. To what extent in a wood, managed solely for the value of the timber it produces, will it be profitable to thin? In dealing with this, two distinct bearings should be kept in mind—the first, that too small a quantity of branches and consequently of leaves, must, to a greater or less extent, check the growth of the trees, and so diminish the production of timber; and, second, that by having too large a quantity, the value of the timber is greatly reduced in consequence, and the number of trees to the acre much diminished as well.