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88 The yotirnal of Forestry. 



is a maxim which deservest attention. For puvo coppice, especially in 

 hop-growing districts, nothing is more valuable than ash, sweet chest- 

 nut, maple, red wallow, birch, beech, oak, alder, and hazel ; these being 

 disposed according to soil and drainage. Now that creosoting of poles 

 is general, the cultivation of the softer woods is more remunerative. 

 Three and a half feet upon the more exposed quarters, and four feet 

 in more favoured spots, will be found good distances for planting. 

 For the second class of plantations the same kinds of trees may be 

 used, a sufticient number being reserved for standards at the time of 

 the first cutting or exploitation. 



The periods of cutting will vary from nine to twelve or thirteen 

 years, according to climate and soil. Upon suitable soils plantations 

 of pure larch, ash, or sweet chestnut are highly remunerative, the 

 latter being sometimes sold at from £50 to £C0 per acre, the growth 

 of nine or ten years only. 



Where it is intended ultimately to grow timber alone, the hard 

 woods may be planted at distances of from 12 to 15 feet and filled up 

 with nurses of 3i or 4 feet apart. In this case thinning and pruning 

 must commence early, and continue until the standards only are left, 

 at distances varying from 25 to 40 feet apart, carrying respectively 

 69 or 27 trees per acre. 



To assist the planter in ascertaining the number of trees required 

 per acre at any given distance, it should be remembered that at one 

 foot apart an acre of ground will take 43,560 plants. This number 

 divided by the square of the distance apart in feet M'ill at once afford 

 the desired information : thus, at 5 feet apart, divide 43,560 by the 

 square of 5, or 25, and the result will be 1,742 — the number required. 

 At 12 feet apart divide by the square of 12, or 144, which will give a 

 result of 302. As the Scottish acre contains 54,760 superficial feet, 

 and the Irish 70,560, the same process may be applied in calculations 

 for planting in either country. 



The sizes as well as distances of plants should be regulated by soil 

 and situation. Upon exposed places with light soils, where the system 

 of planting in slits or notches is practised, two years' seedling larch 

 will be strong enough, and other firs after one year's transplanting. 

 For lower situations and deeper soils allow one more year. Upon the 

 thinner soils trenching before planting would be positively injurious, 

 holino; a doiibtful advantage, and notching the surest method. Too 

 much moving of the soil would prove fatal to its retention of 

 moisture. 



With regard to the distances of plants for pure coppice, it is a well- 

 known fact that when the stools are tolerably close together the shoots 

 start off at once with a straight growth ; whereas when planted at 

 greater distnnces the poles are apt to become twisted nnd crooked at 



