protect the thorns from cattle, a ditch with post and rails are adopted. (Fig. 8. a). When rabbits abound in the neighbourhood of a young quick fence, they are often very destructive to the plants. The means of preventing these animals from having access to the young thorns is too expensive to be adopted for forest fences*. A row of thickly planted dead hedge on each side of the row of quick, is, perhaps, the best temporary protection; but the most effectual mode is to keep down the number of the rabbits, or, if possible, to take them away altogether.

When stones can conveniently be had, the facing of the bank with these, and planting the quick so as to spring through the wall, (fig. 8. b,) forms the most secure and lasting fence. The expense of weeding is saved by it; and, under such circumstances, the plants generally make great progress.

In the management of the hedges when planted, weeding is most essential, for if coarse grass or rampant weeds are suffered to mingle with the lower branches and foliage of the quick, the injury is very considerable. The top of the hedge should be kept level from the first cutting, until the

Fig. 8.

plants have attained to the desired height. The sides of the hedge ought to be kept also of an even surface; by shortening the side branches every year to within an inch more or less of the preceding year's wood, the bottom of the hedge is maintained equally thick and impenetrable with the upper portion. The most generally approved form of a hedge, is that of the hog's mane; however, if the soil has been properly prepared, the plants selected of the largest size, and the keeping clear of weeds, and most judicious mode of pruning persevered in, the hedge will flourish in every shape.

By keeping the top of a hedge level, it is not meant that all the plants should be shortened in the leading shoot of the stem, but only those which overtop their thin neighbours. If this be properly attended to, the evil effects which follow the practice of shortening without exception the leading shoots of every plant of the hedge will be avoided, as well as those which occur when the upright growth of any plant is left uncontrolled until it reach to the desired height.

Where a hedge has been neglected, is overgrown and irregular, the best mode is to cut it down level with the soil, and then to dig the earth about the stumps, inserting plants of strong quick in the gaps where they occur. It may happen that the fence cannot be dispensed with, for the time the young shoots from the old roots require to renew the fence. In this case, the mode of cutting a fourth part of the stems to the desired height, and another fourth part a few inches from the ground, and warping the remainder with these, is found a useful practice.

Besides the white thorn or quick, and the furze (Ulex europæus), there are many other shrubs which may be planted under certain circumstances with effect as fences. In exposed cold soils, the Huntingdon willow, beech, birch, and alder, may be used with advantage.

It may be unnecessary to mention, that where larch poles can be had, they afford an excellent material for fencing, particularly when used with

* For protection to gardens against the depredations of rabbits, or turnip crops exposed in the fields, &c., a wire netting has been invented, which completely answers the purpose. The expense for these purposes is so moderate, as to render the adoption of the wire netting no matter of difficulty. We witnessed the effects of the practice at Cantley Hall, the seat f John W. Childers, Esq.

the bark, which tends to preserve the wood from the effects of moisture and air*.

Draining is essential wherever stagnant moisture prevails in the soil. Boggy lands and tenaceous clays are chiefly the soils which require it, for trees will thrive in a degree of moisture that would be highly hurtful to the nutritive grasses, and to corn crops. Under drains are of little service for forest-trees, as their roots soon render these ineffective. In general, therefore, open cuts should be used. Where the excess of dampness is caused by springs, as in most bogs and morasses, it is essential to ascertain the source of the principal springs which feed the secondary ones, and their numerous outlets over the surface. Sub-aquatic plants, as the alder, rushes, &c., often point out the spots where the search should be made, although these plants are frequently supported by stagnant surface water. Boring with the auger is the best mode of ascertaining the source of the spring, or at least that level of its course in the strata which conducts the water to the boggy land, and where it can be effectually cut off from supplying the secondary springs and outlets in the lower levels. When the source is ascertained, a drain should be cut to the depth of the strata through which it passes, so as to obstruct its progress. It should be made sufficiently deep, or the water will continue to pass under it, and the work will be useless. From this main drain formed across the declivity, other secondary drains should be made to conduct the water thus collected, from the source to the most convenient outlet. It would be incompatible with the space of these pages to enter into details of this subject. Elkington's mode of draining, as given in Johnstone's Treatise on the subject, is on the above principle, and shews with precision the advantages of it, and with how much facility lands, which by the old method of draining were considered incapable of being profitably improved, may be made fit for planting and returning a valuable produce of timber.

Clayey soils which are rendered barren by surface water stagnating upon them, may be made to produce valuable timber by the simple process of constructing open drains, and forming the surface between these into ridges, as before mentioned in Chapter III.

On steep acclivities, rocky soils, and thin heath, or moor lands, incumbent on rock or shale, where ploughing or trenching is impracticable, a depth of pulverized soil cannot be obtained for the reception of the roots of trees of more than two, or at most three years' growth; the mattock planter, diamond dibble, and spade, can be used with the best effect. To attempt any more expensive preparation on such lands, than may be made by these implements for the reception of the individual plants, would be injudicious. The number of valuable woods which have been reared in this way, are too generally known to need particular mention here. The cost may be stated to be from two to five pounds per acre. For the preparation of heath soils, incumbent on sand or loose gravel, an improved paring plough (fig. 9 and 10), which we call Fyshe Palmer's planting plought, is a valuable implement.

The plough consists of two mold boards as in common use, but resting on a triangular and somewhat convex plate of iron (fig. 9). This iron

It is the opinion of some practical persons, that the bark being left on larch poles, encourages or attracts insects to nestle under it, and thereby hastens the decay of the wood, unless it happen that the trees are cut down in winter, or when the sap is down.— Mr. Lance.

Charles Fyshe Palmer, Esq. M. P., in planting a large tract of waste land on his estate of East Court in Berkshire, after various trials, found this plough which he invented a most effective implement in paring off the heath-turf. It economises time as well as

expense.

steel edges riveted to it (fig. 10, c).

The

plate is furnished with sharp fixed share (a, fig. 10), which divides the turf for each side of the double

Fig. 9.

moldboard, is six inches high at the shoulder, with a sharp edge tapering to a point at (b). The sole of the plough is screwed and bolted to the instrument by the bolt sockets (e), and the nut screw sockets (d). The f base of the triangular plate ƒ (fig.9) is twenty-one inches, with a curve of one inch, which facilitates the action of the instrument when paring in gravelly or stony ground. The whole length of the plate is thirtyfive inches from the base (f) to the point of the share (b). Wherever the land is of a moderately level surface, and when paring is desirable, this plough will be found a valuable implement. The whole surface may be pared as in clayey soils, where burning the turf is essential; or spaces of twenty-one inches, as in heath soils, may be pared off with intervals of thirteen inches, on which the reversed turf may rest to decay, and become food for the roots of the trees. When the soil is of sufficient depth to allow of trenching, the common plough, following the track of the paring plough, will effect this object at a comparatively small expense.

Fig. 10.

Much difference of opinion prevails on the comparative advantages and disadvantages of trenching ground for forest trees; nothing is more certain than that trenching and manuring is more advantageous to the trees than holing, or any other mode of preparation. But there are certain soils which will produce valuable timber, and that cannot be ploughed or trenched; these have already been mentioned: there are others which are capable of receiving benefit from this mode of preparation, but where it would be inexpedient to bestow it. There is one instance in which trenching cannot on any account be dispensed with, which is that of ground near a mansion, where the value of trees in respect to landscape effect, shelter, shade, concealment, and the improvement of local climate, have equal if not superior claims to that of the actual value of the timber produced by the individual trees of the plantation. The question as regards other sites and soils, intermediate between these two now mentioned, and of a nature as regards texture and quality similar to the soils described in Chapter IV., under the numbers 3, 4, 5 and 6, which are capable of rearing mixed plantation, or a variety of different species of forest trees in perfection, the process of trenching or ploughing, and also manuring when possible, ought to be adopted. In this instance, however, it is highly necessary, before adopting the more expensive preparation, to ascertain exactly the cost of each mode of planting, and the probable return of profit from the outlay. As many local circumstances interfere with the performance of these different processes, as the comparative cheapness of labour, of manure, the facility of obtaining the most proper sized plants, to anticipate two or three years' earlier return of produce, &c., it would be of little use here to give any calculations of expense and profits, as data by which to estimate the results of either mode of practice, that would be applicable

to every soil and site alluded to. Where the local demand for the smaller sized products of plantations are great, the more expensive process of trenching should be adopted, inasmuch as the growth of forest-trees to the size of poles, and of materials for fencing, &c., is highly promoted by trenching and manuring, and the returns of profits from these products of planting are in proportion earlier and larger. That this superiority extends in the same proportion to the ultimate produce of timber in trees, may not appear so clear, because it may be urged by those who undervalue trenching and manuring as preparation of the soil for planting forest-trees, that there are no satisfactory records of the comparative rate of increase of timber, or of solid vegetable fibre, after the first twenty or thirty years' growth of the different species of forest-trees, which have been planted on trenched and manured grounds, and the contrary, being under all other circumstances the same until their last stage of perfection; and yet the truth of such continued superiority of increase, is the only test by which the question can be decided, and an unerring rule of practice be obtained. The results of mere observation, or conclusions drawn from the apparent contents of trees, will not be found to warrant the adoption of any new mode of practice. But the comparative increase and ultimate produce of timber should be ascertained up to the period of the trees attaining to perfect maturity in the most satisfactory manner, by actual admeasurement; and correct records kept of the age of the trees, comparative value of the plants when planted as to their size, roots, and constitutional vigour at the time of planting; as also the intimate nature of the soil, subsoil, and local climate. In the oak, after the first fifty or sixty years' growth, the annual rate of increase of the diameter diminishes greatly. The Lambert pine-tree (Pinus Lambertiana), mentioned in the Trans. Linn. Society, vol. xv. p. 497, exhibited an increase of diameter of four inches and a half only at the base, during the last fifty-six years of its growth.

These last remarks apply to the question generally; but in all cases of exception before mentioned, and in the instances of clayey, tenacious soils, and compact gravelly loams, trenching ought doubtless to be adopted as a preparation for the reception of forest-trees*.

The advantages of trenching have been zealously and ably advocated in a late publication by Mr. Withers, to which we have already referred, and the proofs brought forward in support of his arguments are satisfactory as far as they go; but the most important facts are those of the superior increase, and the comparative quality of the timber when the trees have attained to full maturity. Registers of the facts stated by Mr. Withers, continued until the trees attain to full timber size, and of the buildings or purposes to which, in certain cases, the timber is applied, are what would afford invaluable information, and for which posterity would be grateful. A distinguished writer asserts that after the first twelve or twenty years of growth of trees planted on land prepared by trenching, all distinction is lost between the apparent growth of these and of those which may have been planted by the simple process of holing. In general cases, the observations of the writer of this have led to precisely the same conclusions. It is improbable, however, that the superior growth which so distinctly marked the progress of the plants on the trenched ground during the first years of growth should wholly cease, but that it diminishes in proportion as the soil, which had been loosened by the process, becomes consolidated to its original state, and in proportion as the roots advance in the subsoil which had remained equally undisturbed in the execution of both modes of preparation, is quite certain. Whether this superior rate of produce, though reduced in degree, continues until the tree attains to perfect maturity, or ceases before that period, we have certainly no records of facts to shew. Farther, as regards the progressive increase of wood in trees, different species vary in this particular. The locust, for instance, will make shoots of six feet in length for a few of the first years of its growth, or, if cut down when in a healthy state, will produce in one season shoots of three yards or more in length; but to conclude from this circumstance that the locust is one of the fastest growing trees, or even that it is equal in this respect to the slow growing oak, would be erroneous, inasmuch as, at its fifteenth

In order to have at all times the most convenient as well as the most pleasant access to the interior of the plantation, rides or broad drives should be marked out and left unplanted. On heaths and gravelly soils the surface is in general so level and unbroken as to require the lines or edges of the rides merely to be cut out in the form of a shallow water-course, any inequalities of the surface to be made good with the turf or earth taken out. In damp, clayey soils, the rides should be made higher in the middle and sloping on each side to an open drain, marking the line of each side*. The earth should be made fine and sown with the following grass seeds, viz., Alopecurus pratensis, Dactylis glomerata, Lolium perenne, Cynosurus cristatus, Phleum pratense, Anthoxanthum odoratum, Poa trivialis, Festuca pratensis, with red and white clovers combined, at the rate of four bushels and a half to an acre. For dry, sandy, heath soils, which can scarcely be covered with verdure, the following will be found effectual:-Festuca year of growth, the annual rate of increase in height is found to be reduced to inches instead of yards or feet, and. at the age of thirty or forty years it may be said to cease altogether to advance in stature; while the oak, which has before this period overtopped the locust, continues its comparatively steady annual increase for a century. And, with certain modifications of the rate of annual increase between the first and subsequent stages of growth to perfection, the same principles will apply to the willow (a), poplar, alder, birch and the pine tribe, on the one hand, and to the oak, chestnut, elm, beech, ash, &c., on the other.

(a) The Bedford willow (Salix Russelliana) when planted on a damp, clayey loam, on a rising site, has been observed by the writer of this to attain to the height of thirty feet in five years, but after that the annual rate of increase diminished to inches, and then the tree became in appearance stationary. The celebrated willow in Staffordshire, known under the name of Doctor Johnson's Willow, is of this species. Since the above was sent to the press we have had the gratification of perusing the Salictum Woburnense, or a catalogue of the willows indigenous and foreign in the collection of the Duke of Bedford, at Woburn Abbey. This contains the fullest account of all the different species of this interesting tribe of plants that has yet appeared. As regards the willow above alluded to, it is observed in the introduction to the work by the noble author, that 'the Rev. Mr. Dickenson assured Sir James Smith and myself that the great willow at Lichfield (commonly called Johnson's willow, from a belief that it had been planted by him) was of this species. Dr. Johnson never failed to visit this willow when he went to Lichfield.' In 1781 it was reported to be nearly eighty years old, and Mr. Dickenson says, 'the venerable sage delighted to recline under its shade.' The noble author further observes, 'I can state another instance from my own personal knowledge of this species of willow attaining a great size within the ordinary period of a man's life. A willow-tree on the south lawn at Gordon Castle, in Scotland, was planted by the late Duke of Gordon about 1765; it was then in a small box four feet square, floating on the surface of the lake, and shortly sank on the spot, where it took root. The lake has long since disappeared, and the tree was blown down in a storm on the 24th November, 1826, the tree being then sixty-one years old. I examined this tree a few years ago, and found it to be the Salix Russelliana of Sir J. E. Smith.'-Salictum Woburnense, Introduction, vi.

* At Blair Adam, in many instances, the plantations were originally made with broad rides; in others where that was omitted in the original planting, it has been accomplished by cutting out the trees. These, while the plantations were young, served the double purpose of access, for the convenience of carrying out the thinnings and for pleasure, because then it was possible to proportion the loading of the carriage, by putting a greater or smaller number of trees, according to the state of the rides in point of moisture or distance; but now that one tree makes a load, and that its weight cannot be diminished, the injury done to the ridings was so great as to impede both the convenience and the pleasure of the rides, and great expense was incurred in putting them in repair. To avoid this, what are called wood or thinning lanes have been adopted, by cutting out trees in proper lines for them; this shortens distances to the place of deposit (for rides are always circuitous) and is of benefit to the woods by admitting air more generally, care being taken that they are so twisted as not to incur the risk of being blown down. It is proposed (as they are easily got) to fill the rutts with broken stones. Where stones are not easily to be got, the rutts might be filled with trees not otherwise useful, so as to make a sort of coarse railway. This plan will, in the end, save a great deal of expense and labour, and secures at all times the proprietor's access to the woods and his seeing what is going on,