182 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



for if they stand in walks or avenues they ought to have a greater heed to make a 

 shade withall, and improve the prospect ; hut if in groves or thicketts, or among 

 other forrest trees, they ought to be pruned much higher, especially when design'd 

 for timber use. And tho' there are some who don't approve of pruning Firr Trees, 

 alleadging that the Firr will prune itself, yet the pluggs and knots so frequently seen 

 in deal boards, &c., are the ill effects of leaving them thus to themselves ; whereas, 

 if those boughs or dead branches had been lopt off in time, the breach would, in 

 two or three years, be quite heal'd up and covered by the succeeding coats and 

 circles that surround and enlarge the tree on each year's growth ; of which plain 

 instances are given in trees that have been sown, pruned yearly to a considerable 

 height, and, at length, cut down by the same hand, where, in the body, and near the 

 hart of the tree, were seen the severall places or marks where the boughs have been 

 cut of and grown over again to a considerable thickness, so as not the least sign or 

 scar was to be seen where the boughs or branches were to have grown. 



There are frequently among the arms or boughs of the Firr Trees those called 

 master boughs, or proud branches, which seem to vie or contend with the chiefe or 

 upright stem of the trees, and sometimes get the better of them, whereby the trees 

 become crooked, disagreeable to the eye. This is no way to be prevented but by 

 lopping them off in time ; for if suffer'd to grow too long, they not only occasion 

 large wounds even to the very head of the trees, but endanger the loss of all, by 

 their breaking of at those places where the wounds were given, upon the first great 

 winds that shall beat on those sides of the trees. 



Let the Firr have ever so many years' growths, either on the main stem or 

 branches only, those of the last, or two last years will be found set with the green 

 leaves ; for it sheds a set of leaves every year, about the months of August or Sep- 

 tember, as other forrest trees do the autumn following, which makes the inner part 

 of the tree (especially if view'd from below) look very ill. This likewise makes 

 the pruning necessary, especially when they so well answer several occasions about 

 a house or farm, where they prove very good stakes and binders for hedges ; and 

 what is good for no other use will, if kept dry, make excellent faggots for fireing. 



In setting out any number of trees into groves or walks, it seems necessary they 

 be all of the same age or height, and taken out of the same nursery ; for different 

 ages make a disproportion, and being brought from severall nurserys, the soyl may 

 prove unkindly to some of them, and thereby, too, make their growth unequal ; 

 this, in time, will make the weakest decline, and by being over-topt by the rest, 

 dye, and make a breach in the whole : wherefore, as soon as any are despair'd off, 

 they must be desplac'd, and others brought into their room the very next season, 

 and those (as directed) of the same age ; for filling up the places of trees of any con- 

 siderable height with small one's, is but labour in vain. 



The Firr seems not lyable to the infirmities incident to most other trees, as the 

 rot, shake, blast, canker, vermin, or the like. 



It's found by experience that they thrive and grow very well in our course, 

 strong, sower, spouty soyl, and all such grounds as are inclinable to be woody, and 

 throw up the strong sharp- pointed rushes ; nor, indeed, can any ground be thought 

 too course for them, provided it be moist enough, for we find them growing upon 

 the barren inaccessable rocks and mountains, as already hinted, where they have 

 scarce, in appearance, anything to nourish them but the waters of the melting 

 snows, that continually sapp and drench their roots ; and in Ireland here they 

 seem to have grown in the wettest, coursest bottoms of the whole kingdom, from 

 whence we may inferr that our rich, warm, dry, or sandy soyl, is not at all proper 

 for them. 



The Firr is an aspireing tree, running up constantly in one intire stem, or body ; 

 and may, therefore, be judg'd to take up less space of ground in walk or grove 

 than most other forrest trees, as the oak, ash, &c, that are naturally inclined to 

 extend their arms or boughs to a great distance : where, therefore, the oak, ash, 

 &c., are planted in a walk or avenue, at twenty foot distance ; the Firr may stand at 

 twelve or fourteen, and so proportionably in groves or thickets, where the Firr need 

 stand but ten foot assunder. This differance in the distance and way of standing 

 will make a sensible alteration in the height and bulk, or thickness, of the trees, as 

 is observ'd by some now growing in this kingdom ; for where trees, in a walk of 



