CHAl*. CV.

CORYLA CEiE. QUE'RCUS.

1801

a very effective mode of sheltering the oak; for though, he says, “ it seems tochoke and overgrow the oaks for some time, yet after a few years we com-monly find the best oak plants in the strongest beds of furze.” (Hunt. Evel.,p. 93.,note.) Marshall prefers broom to the furze, as,being less disagreeable towork among. In the Welbeck plantations, the Scotch pine, and several sortsof fir trees, were tried, as well as the birch and the furze ; but in that soil andsituation they did not grow so fast as the birch; and, being evergreen, theyoung oaks did not thrive under them so well as they did under the deciduoustrees. Mr. Speechly observes that he found that the seedling oaks were notinjured, but rather improved, by tall grass and large weeds growing amongthem; which seems contrary to the nature of plants, and is certainly a practicethat ought not to be generally followed, since these tall weeds and grass mustprevent the sun and air from producing their full influence on the leaves ofthe seedling oaks. In this, as in similar cases, it may be laid down as a prin-ciple, that, in all cultivation, every step in the process ought to be regulatedaccording to art and design, and nothing whatever, or, at least, as little aspossible, left to unassisted nature.

Pontey advises planting only 300 oaks on every statute acre, by which theplants would stand at 12 ft. apart every way. He plants in rows, somewhatirregular, at 4ft. apart; every third plant, in each row, being an oak, and theothers being larches, spruces, and Scotch pines; giving the preference to thelarch.

Sang first plants the ground all over with larches, at 3 ft. or 3 ft. 6 in. apart.After these have grown 2, 3, 4, or even 5 years, pits are formed from 4 ft. to7 ft. apart, in which acorns are inserted. (Plant. Kal., p. 195.) In this case,the object is to produce an oak copse; which, however, if thought desirable,may at any future period be so thinned out as to produce an oak wood.ffiBillington and Cruickshank proceed on the same principles as these planters ;that is, they provide the shelter previously to planting the trees. All thesewriters agree in thinning out the sheltering trees gradually, and in regulatingthe number of oaks which are to stand on the acre by the fitness of the soilto produce oaks, and by the relative value of oak copse and the wood oflarches and firs in a young state. Billington defers the thinning out of hisnurses as long as possible; preventing them from whipping or shading theyoung oaks, by shortening the side branches of the nurse trees which protrudetowards them.

Cruickshank’s “ new method of rearing the oak” differs in nothing of im-portance from that recommended by Mr. Sang; as, indeed, the author ac-knowledges (p. 209., note). He directs the ground to be first “ well filled withScotch pines or larches; ” and, after these have risen to the height of about 4 ft.from the ground, which, in Aberdeenshire, he says, will require from 4 to 7years, he digs patches on which to sow acorns, at the rate of 400 patches toa statute acre; the object being, of course, an oak copse, similar to that ofMr. Sang, at least in the first instance. The patches are prepared by diggingand manuring with lime; and each is planted with 5 acorns, one in the centre,and four around it. After 2 years’ growth, all the plants are removed but one,by cutting through their roots, 2 in. or 3 in. below the ground, with a sharpchisel-like instrument with a long handle, made on purpose; the plants re-moved not being intended to be replanted. As soon as the nurses over-shadow the oaks, the plants that do so, or their branches, are to be removed;but “ all the Scotch pines and larches that will require to be taken out beforethey are 16 years old,” this writer says, “ will not render the plantationthinner than a thriving one of the same kind of trees would, for its own sake,need to be at 20 years after planting.” (p. 234.) When the oaks are 5years old, they are to be pruned for the first time, by cutting off the lower tierof branches close to the stem ; and this operation is to be repeated every 2years, till the oaks are between 30 and 40 years old. Two thousand of theScotch pines and larches,” Cruickshank adds, “ may be allowed to remain, notonly without injury, but with advantage, to the oaks, till they are 16 years