whole firmly down. Let the tree remain two years, or three if very large, and then remove it, and carefully plant it where it is finally to remain.

3955. Sir Henry Stewart, who has had much experience in removing large trees, and who thinks that he has discovered a new theory or principle for doing so, recommends that no branches should be pruned from the head; and that to prevent the tree from being blown over by the wind, its position rela tively to the prevailing wind of the locality should be reversed. The principle of not reducing the head in the same proportion as the roots may be reduced, was hinted at by Miller, but has been first systematically defended by Sir Henry Steuart. Experienced planters agree, that nothing ought to be cut from the head of a beech tree when it is removed; but they do not seem willing to concede to Sir Henry's theory, so far as it respects most other ramose trees. We are inclined to think that he may be right with respect to resinous trees, the beech, and perhaps one or two others; but that, as a general principle, whether in young trees or old, the top must be lightened more or When the tree less in proportion to the roots.

has made a stock of fresh roots, and become firmly established in the soil, if an extraordinary exertion in its growth be then wanted, it may either be cut in or pruned severely, or cut down to the ground; and in either case, if it be a tree that stools, it will throw out vigorous shoots.

3956. The principle of reversing the position of the tree relatively to the wind, appears to be good; since, the broader the base of the head of the tree relatively to its height, the more obliquely will it receive the impulse of the wind. Those trees are fittest for being transplanted, which have grown in free open situations; because in them the bark is thick and coarse to resist the cold; the stems stout and short, and the head extensive with the lower branches spreading, to resist the wind.

$957. The machine for transplanting large trees adopted by Sir Henry Steuart, is an improvement of one which has been very long in general use. It consists of a pole (fig. 592. a a) 15 feet long, attached to an axle and a pair of wheels, on which is placed a block (b), which may be of any convenient height, with a pillow (c), and two rings for attaching the draught chains (d). It is easy to conceive the application of this pole, axle, and wheels, to a large tree, and its removal by men or horses to its intended desti nation (fig. 593). (Planter's Guide, sect. viii. 2d edit.)

SECT. IV. Mixture of Trees in Plantations.

3958. The object of mixing trees in plantations is threefold: that of sheltering the weaker but ultimately more valuable kinds by the stronger and hardier; that of drawing as much profit from the soil as possible; and that of producing variety of appearance.

3959. With respect to shelter, many situations are so exposed, that it is extremely difficult to rear trees without some mode of protecting them from the cold winds of spring during their early growth. This is sometimes done by walls, the extent of whose influence, however, is but very limited; by thick planting; or by planting the more hardy and rapid-growing species, to nurse up and protect such as are more tender, but ultimately moré valuable. The proportion of nurses to principals is increased according to the bleakness of the site: Pontey says, " Both authors and planters are in the habit of erring egregiously, in regard to the proportion of principals and nurses, as they generally use as many or more of the former than the latter, though it is very easy to show, that they ought to use three times as many of the latter as the former. For instance, when trees are planted at four feet apart, each occupies a surface of sixteen feet; of course, four of them will occupy sixty-four, or a square of eight feet; and, therefore, if we plant three nurses to one principal tree, all the former might be displaced gradually, and the latter would still stand only eight feet apart."

3960. Nurse plants should, in every possible case, be such as are most valued at an early period of growth. The larch and spruce fir should be used liberally, in every case where they will grow freely; still it is not intended they should exclude all others, more particularly the birch, which has most of the properties of a good nurse, such as numerous branches and quick growth, on any tolerable soil or situation. It is not, however, like the others, a wood of general application. (Profitable Planter, p. 113.) Sang also adopts the proportion of three nurses to one principal, and employs chiefly the resinous tribe, and looks to them for reimbursement till the hard timber has attained to a foot in diameter, under which size hard timber is seldom of much value. His principals are planted at from six to ten feet apart, according to the soil and situation. (Plant. Kal. p. 166.)

3961. In procuring shelter, much depends on the mode of commencing and continuing plantations on bleak sites. Sang, who has had extensive experience in this part of planting, observes, that "every plain, and most fields and situations for planting in this country, have what may be called a windward side, which is more exposed to the destructive blast than any other. It is of great importance to be apprised of this circumstance, and to be able to fix upon the most exposed side of the proposed forest plantation. Fix, then, upon the windward side of the space which is to be converted into a forest, mark off a horizontal stripe or belt, at least a hundred yards in breadth. Let this portion of ground be planted thick, say at the distance of thirty inches, or at the most three feet, with a mixture of larch, sycamore, and elder, in equal quantities or nearly so, if the soil be adapted for rearing these; but if it be better adapted for Scots pines, then let it be planted with them at the distances prescribed for the above mixture. We have no other kinds that will thrive better, or rise more quickly in bleak situations, than those just mentioned. When the trees in this belt or zone have risen to the height of two feet, such hard-wood trees as are intended ultimately to fill the ground should be introduced, at the distance of eight or ten feet from each other, as circumstances may admit. At this period or perhaps a year or two afterwards, according to the bleak or exposed situation of the grounds, let another parallel belt or zone, of nearly equal breadth, be added to the one already so far grown up, and so on, till the whole grounds be covered. It is not easy here to determine on the exact breadth of the subsequent belt or zones; this matter must be regulated by the degree of exposure of the grounds, by the shelter afforded by the zone previously planted, and by such like circumstances." (Plant. Kal. p 29.)

3962. In situations exposed to the sea breeze a similar plan may be successfully followed, and aided in effect by beginning with a wall; the first zone having reached the height of the wall, plant a second, a third, and fourth, and so on till you cover the whole tract to be wooded. In this way the plantations on the east coast of Mid Lothian, round Gosford House, were reared; in Sang's manner, the mountains of Blair and Dunkeld were clothed; and examples, we are informed, might be drawn from the Orkney and Shetland Islands,

3963. The practice of mixing trees, with a view to drawing as much nourishment from the soil as possible, and giving, as it used to be said, more chances of success, was till very lately generally approved of. Marshal advises mixing the ash with the oak; because the latter draws its nourishment chiefly from the subsoil, and the former from the surface. Nicol is an advocate for indiscriminate mixture (Practical Planter, p. 77.), and Pontey says, "Both reason and experience will fully warrant the conclusion, that the greatest possible quantity of timber is to be obtained by planting mixtures." (Prof. Planter, p. 119.) "We are clearly of opinion," says Sang, "that the best method is to plant each sort in distinct masses or groups, provided the situation and quality of the soil be properly kept in view. There has hitherto been too much random work carried on with respect to the mixture of different kinds. A longer practice, and more experience, will discover better methods in any science. That of planting is now widely extended, and improvements in all its branches are introduced. We, therefore, having a better knowledge of soils, perhaps, than our forefathers had, can with greater certainty assign to each tree its proper station. We can, perhaps, at sight, decide that here the oak will grow to perfection, there the ash, and here again the beech; and the same with respect to the others. If, however, there happen to be a piece of land of such a quality, that it may be said to be equally adapted for the oak, the walnut, or the Spanish chestnut, it will be proper to place such in it, in a mixed way, as the principals; because each sort will extract its own proper nourishment, and will have an enlarged range of pasturage for its roots, and consequently may make better timber trees.

2964. Cobbett, who, though by no means a scientific cultivator, has in general very sound practical views, is decidedly in favour of planting in masses; and would have all the trees not only of one and the same sort, but of the same size and height. Woodlands, & 85.)

3965. By indiscriminately mixing different kinds of hard wood plants in a plantation, there is hardly a doubt that the ground will be fully cropped with one kind or other; yet it very often happens, in cases when the soil is evidently well adapted to the most valuable sorts, as the oak perhaps, that there is hardly one oak in the ground for a hundred that ought to have been planted. We have known this imperfection in several instances severely felt. It not unfrequently happens, too, that even what oaks or other hardwood trees are to be met with, are overtopped by less valuable kinds, or perhaps such, all things considered, as hardly deserve a place. Such evils may be prevented by planting with attention to the soil, and in distinct masses. In these masses are insured a full crop, by being properly nursed for a time with kinds more hardy, or which afford more shelter than such hard-wood plants. There is no rule by which to fix the size or extent of any of these masses. Indeed, the more various they are made in size, the better will they, when grown up, please the eye of a person of taste. They may be extended from one acre to fifty or a hundred acres, according to the circumstances of soil and situation: their shapes will accordingly be as various as their dimensions. In the same manner ought all the resinous kinds to be planted, which are intended for timber trees; nor should these be intermixed with any other sort, but be in distinct masses by themselves. The massing of larch, the pine, and the fir of all sorts, is the least laborious and surest means of growing good, straight, and clean timber. It is by planting or rather by sowing them in masses, by placing them thick, by a timely pruning and gradual thinning, that we can with certainty attain this object. (Plant. Kal. 162 and 166.) Our opinion is in perfect consonance with that of Sang, and for the same reasons; and we may add, as an additional one, that in the most vigorous natural forests one species of tree will generally be found occupying almost exclusively one soil and situation, while, in forests less vigorous, on inferior and watery soils, mixtures of sorts are more prevalent. This may be observed by comparing New Forest with the natural woods round Lochlomond, and it is very strikingly exemplified in the great forests of Poland and Russia.

3966. With respect to the appearance of variety, supposed to be produced by mixing a number of species of trees together in the same plantation, we deny that variety is produced. Wherever there is variety, there must be some marked feature in one place, to distinguish it from another; but in a mixed plantation the appearance is every where the same; and ten square yards at any one part of it will give nearly the same number and kinds of trees as ten square yards at any other part. "There is more variety," Repton observes, "in passing from a grove of oaks to a grove of firs, than in passing through a wood composed of a hundred different species, as they are usually mixed together. By this indiscriminate mixture of every kind of tree in planting, all variety is destroyed by the excess of variety, whether it is adopted in belts, clumps, or more extensive masses. For example, if ten clumps be composed of ten different sorts of trees in each, they become so many things exactly similar; but if each clump consists of the same sort of tree, they become ten different things, of which one may hereafter furnish a group of oaks, another of elms, another of chestnuts or of thorns, &c. In like manner, in the modern belt, the recurrence and monotony of the same mixture of trees of all the different kinds, through a long drive, make it the more tedious, in proportion as it is long. In part of the drive at Woburn, evergreens alone prevail, which is a circumstance of grandeur, of variety, of novelty, and, I may add, of winter comfort, that I never saw adopted in any other place, on so magnificent a scale. The contrast of passing from a wood of deciduous trees to a wood of evergreens must be felt by the most heedless observer; and the same sort of pleasure, though in a weaker degree, would be felt, in the course of a drive, if the trees of different kinds were collected in small groups or masses by themselves, instead of being blended indiscriminately." (Enquiry into Changes of Taste, &c. p. 23.)

3967. Sir William Chambers and Price agree in recommending the imitation of natural forests in the arrangement of the species. In these, Nature disseminates her plants by scattering their seeds, and the offspring rise round the parent in masses or breadths, depending on a variety of circumstances, but chiefly on the facility which these seeds afford for being carried to a distance by the wind, the rain, and by birds or other animals. At last that species which had enjoyed a maximum of natural advantages is found to prevail as far as this maximum extended, stretching along in masses and irregular portions of surface, till, circumstances changing in favour of some other species, that takes the precedence in its turn. In this way it will be generally found, that the number of species, and the extent and style of the masses in which they prevail, bear a strict analogy to the changes of soil and surface; and this holds good, not only with respect to trees and shrubs, but to plants, grasses, and even mosses.

SECT. V. Culture of Plantations.

3968. A tree, when once planted, most men consider to be done with; though, as every one knows, the progress and products of trees, like those of other plants, may be greatly increased or modified by cultivating the soil, by pruning, and by thinning. Before proceeding to these subjects, we shall submit some remarks on the influence of culture on the progress of the growth of trees, and on the strength and durability of timber.

SUBSECT. 1. General Influence of Culture on Trees.

3969. The effect of culture on herbaceous vegetables is so great, as always to change The common their appearance, and often, in a considerable degree, to alter their nature. culinary vegetables, and cultivated grasses, assume so different an appearance in our fields and gardens, from what they do in a state of wild nature, that even a botanist might easily be deceived in regard to the species. The same general laws operate upon the whole kingdom of vegetables; and thence it is plain, that the effects of culture on trees, though different in degree, must be analogous in their nature. (Treatise on Country

Resid. vol. ii.) In the same manner, the absence of culture, or the removing of the vegetable to a colder climate and a worse soil, tends to contract or consolidate the parts of the plant. (Planter's Guide.)

3970. The effect of culture on woody plants is similar to that on culinary vegetables and cultivated grasses; but the law operates of course less rapidly, owing to the less rapid growth of trees, from the lowest bush to the oak of the forest. In all of these, the culture of the soil tends to accelerate vegetation, and, by consequence, to expand the fibre of the wood. It necessarily renders it softer, less solid, and more liable to suffer by the

action of the elements.

3971. The effect of culture on the ligneous plants in common use in planting and gardening is readily exemplified. Every forester is aware how much easier it is to cut over thorns or furze trained in hedges, than such as grow naturally wild, and are exempt from culture. Gardeners experience the same thing in pruning or cutting over fruit trees, or shrubs; and the difference in the texture of the raspberry, in its wild and in its cultivated state, is as remarkable; for, although the stem, in the latter case, is nearly double the thickness to which it attains in the former, it is much more easily cut. On comparing the common crab, the father of our orchards, with the cultivated apple, the greater softness of the wood of the latter will be found not less striking to every arboriculturist. The common oak in Italy and Spain, where it grows faster than in Britain, is ascertained to be of shorter duration in those countries. In the same way, the oak in the highland mountains of Scotland or Wales is of a much harder and closer grain, and therefore more durable, than what is found in England; though on such mountains it seldom rises to the fifth part or less of the English tree. Every carpenter in Scotland knows the extraordinary difference between the durability of Highland oak, and oak usually imported from England, for the spokes of wheels. Every extensive timber dealer is aware of the superior hardness of oak raised in Cumberland and Yorkshire, over that of Monmouthshire and Herefordshire; and such a dealer, in selecting trees in the same woods in any district, will always give the preference to oak of slow growth, and found on cold and clayey soils, and to ash on rocky cliffs, which he knows to be the soils and climates natural to both. If he take a cubic foot of park-oak, and another of forestoak, and weigh the one against the other, (or if he do the like with ash and elm of the same descriptions,) the latter will uniformly turn out the heavier of the two. The Scotch pine does not stand longer than forty or fifty years on the rich and fertile land in both England and Scotland, where it is often planted, and where it rushes up with extraordinary rapidity. In the northern districts of Scotland, on the other hand, the difference between park pine and Highland pine is universally known and admitted, and the superiority of the latter is proved by its existence in buildings of great antiquity, where it is still found in a sound state; a difference which can be ascribed to no other cause than the mountainous situations (that is, the natural state) in which the former timber is produced, and where, the trees being of slower growth, the wood is consequently of a harder texture. A friend of Sir Henry Steuart's felled some larch trees, which had grown nearly fifty years in a deep rich loam, close to some cottages and cabbage gardens. The wood was soft and porous, and of no duration; it was even found to burn as tolerable firewood, which larch of superior quality is never known to do. (Tr. on Coun. Res., and Planter's Guide.)

3972. The general effect of pruning is to increase the quantity of timber produce. The particular manner in which it does this is by directing the greater part of the sap, which generally spreads itself in side-branches, into the principal stem. This must consequently enlarge that stem in a more than ordinary degree, by increasing the annual circles of the wood. Now, if the tree be in a worse soil and climate than those which are natural to it, this will be of some advantage, as the extra increase of timber will still be of a quality not inferior to what would take place in its natural state; or, in other words, it will correspond with that degree of quality and quantity of timber, which the nature and species of the tree admit of being produced. If the tree be in its natural state, the annual increase of timber, occasioned by pruning, must necessarily injure its quality, in a degree corresponding with the increased quantity. If the tree be in a better climate and soil than that which is natural to it, and, at the same time, the annual increase of wood be promoted by pruning, it is evident that such wood must be of a very different quality from that produced in its natural state (that is, very inferior). Whatever, therefore, tends to increase the wood in a greater degree than what is natural to the species, when in its natural state, must injure the quality of the timber. Pruning tends to increase this in a considerable degree, and, therefore, it must be a pernicious practice, in as far as it is used in these cases. Pruning is not here considered in regard to eradicating diseases, preventing injuries, or increasing the natural character and tendency of trees: for those purposes it is of great advantage. Mr. Knight has shown, in a very striking manner, that timber is produced, or rather, that the alburnum or sapwood is rendered ligneous, by the motion of the tree, during the descent of the true (or proper) sap.

It

is also sufficiently known to all who have attended to the physiology of vegetables, and is greatly confirmed by some experiments laid before the Royal Society (Phil. Trans. 1803, 1804), that the solid texture of the wood greatly depends upon the quantity of sap which must necessarily descend, and also on the slowness of its descent. Now, both these requisites are materially increased by side branches, which retain a large quantity of sap, and by their junction with the stem occasion a contraction, and twisted direction of the vessels, which obstructs the progress of the (proper) juice. That this is true, in fact, is well known to those accustomed to make wine from maple and birch trees; for in this business it is found, that those trees which have fewest side branches bleed more freely than the others, but during a much shorter space of time. These hints, therefore, afford additional evidence against pruning, and particularly against pruning fir-trees; which, as Mr. Knight justly observes, have larger vessels than the others, and, therefore, when in an improved soil and climate, side branches, for the purposes above mentioned, are essentially necessary to them, if solid, resinous, and durable timber be the object in view. (Sir Henry Steuart's Planter's Guide, p. 444.)

3973. Sir Henry Steuart, concurring in these facts and observations, deduces the following practical conclusions respecting the influence of culture: —

3974. First; that all timber trees thrive best, and produce wood of the best quality, when growing in soils and climates most natural to the species. It should, therefore, be the anxious study of the planter, to ascertain and become well acquainted with these, and to raise trees, as much as possible, in such soils and climates.

5975. Secondly; that trees may be said to be in their natural state, when they have sprung up fortui. tously, and propagated themselves without aid from man, whether it be in aboriginal forests, ancient woodlands, commons, or the like. That in such trees, whatever tends to increase the wood, in a greater degree than accords with the species when in its natural state, must injure the quality of the timber. 3976. Thirdly; that whatever tends to increase the growth of trees, tends to expand their vegetable fibre. That when that takes place, or when the annual circles of the wood are soft, and longer than the general annual increase of the tree should warrant, then the timber must be less hard and dense, and more liable to suffer from the action of the elements.

3977. Fourthly; that a certain slowness of growth is essentially necessary to the closeness of texture and durability of all timber, but especially of the oak; and that, whenever the growth of that wood is unduly accelerated by culture of the soil (such as by trenching and manuring), or by undue superiority of climate, it will be injured in quality in the precise ratio in which those agents have been employed 3978. Fifthly; that, as it is extremely important for the success of trees, to possess a certain degree of vigour in the outset, or to be what is technically called, "well set off," the aid of culture is not in every case to be precluded, by a consideration of the general rule. That if trees be in a soil and climate worse than those that are natural to them, then culture will be of some advantage; as the extra increase of wood will be of a quality not inferior to what, in its natural state, it would obtain; or, in other words, it will correspond with that degree of quality and quantity of timber, which the nature of the species admits of being obtained: but culture in this case must be applied with cautious discrimination, and a sound judgment. That, on the other hand, if trees be in a better soil and climate than are natural to them, and, at the same time, that the annual increase of wood be promoted by culture (as already said), it will be a decided disadvantage, and deteriorate the wood. In the same way, if trees be in their natural state, the annual increase of timber, obtained by culture, will injure its quality, in a degree corresponding with the increased quantity.

5979. Sirthly; that such appears to be a correct, though a condensed view of the operation of those general laws respecting growth, which govern the whole vegetable kingdom, and especially of their effects on woody plants, and of the salutary restraints, which science dictates to be laid on artificial culture, of which pruning, as well as manuring, forms a constituent part, as has been explained above, at so much length. That it is by a diligent study of the peculiar habits of trees, and the characters of soils, illustrated and regulated by facts drawn from general experience, that rash or ignorant systems of arboriculture are to be best corrected, and science brought most beneficially to bear on general practice." (Planter's Guide, 2d edit. p. 478.)

SUBSECT. 2. Culture of the Soil among Trees.

3980. With respect to the culture of the soil, it is evident, that young plantations should be kept clear of such weeds as have a tendency to smother the plants; and though this is not likely to take place on heaths and barren sites, yet even these should be looked over once or twice during summer, and at least those weeds removed which are conspicuously injurious. In grounds which have been prepared previously to planting, weeding, hoeing by hand or by the horse hoe, and digging or ploughing (the two latter rarely), become necessary according to circumstances. The hoeings are performed in summer to destroy weeds, and render the soil pervious to the weather; the ploughing and diggings in winter are for the same purpose, and sometimes to prepare the soil for spring crops. These, both Pontey and Sang allow, may be occasionally introduced among newly planted trees; though it must not be forgotten that, relatively to the trees, the plants composing such crops are weeds, and some of them, as the potato, weeds of the most exhausting kind. Sang uses a hoe of larger size than usual. (fig. 590. d.) In preparing lands for sowing woods, Sang ploughs in manure, sows in rows six feet apart, by which he is enabled to crop the ground between with low-growing early potatoes, turnips, and lettuce; but not with young trees as a sort of nursery, as they prove more scourging crops than esculent vegetables; nor with grain, as not admitting of culture, and being too exhausting for the soil. Marshal, and some other authors, however, approve of sowing the tree seeds with a crop of grain, and hoeing up the stubble and weeds when the crop is removed.

3981. Pontey observes, "that wherever preparing the soil for planting is thought necessary, that of cultivating it for some years afterwards will generally be thought the