1885.] A SEPTEMBER HAW IN NORTHUMBERLAND. 351 



fourteen years ago the Duke of Northumberland planted at Dipton 

 L>ene and Corbridge Fell close upon a thousand acres, mostly in 

 larch and Scots fir, all of which, according to Mr. Coxon, are doing 

 fairly well. The " holed " trees have done much better than those 

 which were " slit" in. So far back as 1817, the late II. Ormston, 

 Esq., planted on Healey some 640 acres of poor land, useless for the 

 plough, betwixt 500 and 600 feet above the sea-level. The greater 

 part of this was only a poor soil, in some cases of peat-earth alone 

 on the sandstone, but with a porous subsoil, except indeed where 

 the naked rock nearly covered the surface. Whins were hoed out ; 

 heather burned off the surface; and damp sites were drained by 

 open ditches from 2 feet to 2^ feet, according to requirement. On 

 dry localities possessing even a semblance of a surface soil, larch 

 was planted. Scotch fir was relegated to sites covered by peat 

 earth or nearly naked rock ; spruce fir with a few bircli and alder 

 were tried on the bogs, but with poor success, and the birch is 

 now replaced by Scotch fir or spruce. Throughout, two years' 

 seedlings, one or two years transplanted, were employed, mostly slit 

 planted ; though in a very tough turf a cross slit, in the fashion 

 of a St. George's cross, was made. This method is preferred 

 by Mr. Jewitt, the present forester on the estate, to whom we are 

 indebted for tliese details. The ground is thus well broken when 

 the spade is bent backwards and forwards in each slit, and room 

 given for the roots of the tree to spread in all the four directions. 

 The trees were at first planted too closely, about 2700 to the 

 acre being used ; distances of from 4^ to 5 feet apart are now 

 found the best to ensure the production of good timber. For two 

 seasons after planting, dead plants were replaced by living ones ; 

 during other three years or so the forester carefully removed whins, 

 brackens, or other weeds usurping the ground on which his seedlings 

 had been planted ; which were then left to grow for the next ten 

 years ; at the close of which a general pruning of dead branches 

 about seven feet high or so was done, a preliminary to the first 

 thinning, when about one-third of the trees were removed. Thin- 

 nings were renewed at intervals of three or four years till the final 

 cutting down, which was commenced in 1859, of yet healthy trees, 

 but whose extra timber growth was calculated not to exceed the 

 interest accruing on their then money value. Mr. Jewitt estimates 

 that the money obtained from the periodic thinnings amply repaid 

 all expenses, with compound interest for capital invested in stocking 

 the plantation, rent for land, etc., besides leaving a good margin for 

 profits, whilst at the final fall of the trees a clear balance was left 

 of at least five times the value of the land on which they were 

 planted. Other two plantings have since been effected on Healey 



