The same thing is markedly the case in young woods of ash, oak and chestnut, where they have been grown sufficiently thick on the ground to kill off the lower branches, and also to cause the trees to rise straight, clean and tapering. It is a well-known fact, too, that the timber of trees so grown is far more elastic and realizes a much higher price than that of the same age grown under conditions where pruning might have been a necessity. A case of this kind came under my own notice only a short time ago in which one-half of a plantation of hard-wooded trees realized fully one-fourth more than the remaining half. It came about in this way. Both ends and a large patch in the centre of the wood had been thinned out severely for the purpose of planting game covert. The trees, standing thinly on the ground, branched out and soon covered the open spaces where underwood had been planted. In thinning the whole plantation the trees on these particular parts were very rough and knotty, and bore no comparison to those where they had been left moderately thick on the ground, in consequence of which the boles were straight, clean and tapering. This case is specially noteworthy, inasmuch as the trees over the whole area were growing under exactly similar conditions as to soil, shelter, etc., and were of the same age and species. Great and irreparable damage has been done to woods and plantations in this country by too heavy thinnings, by commencing the thinnings at too early a period, and by adopting the book method of leaving the trees at measured distances apart and a stated number to the acre according to the age of the plantation. Such rules can never be expected to work satisfactorily, the size of trees depending so much on the character of the soil, exposure of the woodland, and other peculiarities of the particular district in which they are planted. [Illustration: PRUNING TOOLS] Timely and judicious thinning should never be neglected, but it is the over-thinning, whereby branches and knotty trunks are produced and the supposed need for pruning follows, that I wish to deprecate and entirely dissent from. Grow your timber trees so thickly on the ground that the stems are induced to become straight, clean and branchless for the greater part of their height, and on no account admit sufficient light and air to cause the lower branches to be retained intact, or, in other words, at all times retain an unbroken leaf canopy. The necessity for pruning will then be entirely done away with, and a more valuable class of timber produced. The losses sustained through injudicious planting and the unnecessary and ruinous practice of pruning have taught a lesson that is fraught with good for the tree planter of the future.