Underwood and Timber Plantations. 135 



will make useful rough hay, lca\ iug the drives in nice order to receive the 

 hens, with their broods of birds, to be grown up naturalized to the wood. 

 Before planting underwood it is judicious to find what purpose it can be 

 sold for, and what are the sorts of poles that are rcost esteemed in the 

 market ; then ascertain what sorts grow the most luxuriantly on the soil, 

 and select the best growers for the purpose required. 



I know several cases where chestnut and ash were at great expense 

 planted where the soil would only grow inferior stuff (such as birch) well, 

 and pay for a horse before the former would buy the saddle. 



Much may be done on wet soils by judicious open draining and 

 trenching the land before planting, with good cultivation afterwards, 

 towards success in growing the highest class of plants suited to the soil, 

 such as ash, larch, and willow ; but on such soils brown birch will often 

 pay much better for poles, and oak for timber. 



The drains should be 11 yards apart, and for hop-pole growing, nine 

 rows of plants 42 inches apart (except the rows the drains are in, which 

 should be 5 feet), the drains 2 feet deep, 2 feet wide at top, and 8 inches 

 at bottom, deepened to 30 inches after the first fall of poles; the plants are 

 to be 4 feet apart in the rows, and put in opposite the space of those in the 

 preceding row. When carefully planted they will be 4 feet from plant to 

 plant, and rows 42 inches apart in three directions. This will require 

 2,970 plants. A larch planted in every second space in the rows, and in 

 every second row, will take 7G2 plants. If intended ultimately for timber, 

 one-fourth of these should be substituted by oak or other hard wood or 

 pines, making 3,732 plants per acre. 



Late in jMarch 4 cwt. of superphosphate at 7s. 6d., 5 cwt. of kainit at 

 4s., and 2 cwt. of nitrate of soda, 15s., applied per acre, and shallowly 

 dug in with a row of good potatoes planted betwixt the rows, the seed 

 costing 60s. ; two deep diggings during the summer, with moulding up 

 the potatoes, at 25s. each ; which, with digging 6 tons of potatoes and 

 storing them, at 40s. per acre, will be a total expense of £13 ; the return 

 6 tons of potatoes at £3 = £18, leaving £5 towards expenses of 

 planting. The same should be done the second year betwixt the row in 

 another direction, leaving another £5 towards planting expenses, and the 

 trees benefited by the residue left from the two manurings, and the land 

 twice well fallowed. 



The third year three good hoeings, at 5s. each, and one the sprino- of 

 the fourth year, should leave the trees strong enough to keep weeds down 

 by overshading ; at the end of the tenth or twelfth year these should 

 reahze from £20 to £30, leaving all the larch and hardwood trees 

 standing; all perished plants should then be replaced, and the drains 

 deepened. 



The next fall will be ready in eleven years, when half the larch and 

 underwood should realize from £40 to £60 per acre. 



Where the soil is light, and especially of a sandy nature, Spanish 

 chestnut is both the fastest grower and the most valued in the market, but 

 they will not bear overshading, therefore but few trees siiould be grown 



