Chips and Slips. 221 



manufacture of agricultural implements. The Scotch fir, larch and spruce are 



most advantageously cut at from twenty to thirty years, although in some 

 localities a much higher price may be obtained for certain special purposes at 

 a greater age. None of these would be likely to pay, if grown long distances 

 from market, railway stations or seaports. Elm should never be cut except 

 for large timber, or at an age of 80 or 100 years. The linden is of little value 

 before 60 years. Sycamore should be about 100, as well as chestnut. The 

 oak is of slow growth when young, but grows faster after 30 years. It is 

 extensively used for agricultural implements, furniture, boat and ship building, 

 &c., and should be allowed to grow till it has matured plenty of heart wood, 

 which should not be less than about 100 years old. As already stated, wood 

 vrhich is used exclusively for the manufacture of charcoal, would yield a larger 

 amount, during a series of years, by close planting and more frequent cuttino-, 

 the second growth springing up and taking the place of the first.— Country 

 Gentleman. 



Valuable specimen trees which may have been girdled by accident, or by 

 vermin, may be saved by the following method recommended by the Albany 

 Cultivator. Draw away the earth below, so as to allow the tool to point upwards, 

 and then, with a narrow chisel, make one cut in the tree near the edges of the 

 bai'k above and below. Sharpen to a wedge form a small branch half an inch in 

 diameter, and insert the ends into the two cuts made by the chisel. Bind the 

 shoots to their places firmly with bass, and cover the wound with grafting was. 

 Four such shoots will make a strong connection, and the growth will be scarcely 

 checked. If well done every tree will live, with scarcely the possibility of 

 failure. We have seen a thousand young trees thus saved, on a single estate. 

 The trees are growing as vigorously as any, and have now grown so large as to 

 form one stem, swollen in appearance at bottom. Ifthere happen to be suckers 

 to the trees, these may be used to make the connection. 



Eucalyptus globulus.— In the year 1860, Mr. James S. Stratton, Alameda 

 County, California, had his attention first attracted towards the cultivation of 

 forest trees by observing the rapid growth of the Eucalyptus globulus, or blue 

 gum tree, growing on his place at Oakland, in the said County, and in April 

 of that year he secured all the seed he could from these trees, and immediately 

 planted them in a nursery. From these seeds he succeeded in raisin f^ about 

 40,000 young trees, about 30,000 of which he planted in November and December 

 of that year, in a permanent plantation, eight feet apart each waj', covering in 

 all about fifty-four acres. These were of the variety Eucalyptus glohuhis or 

 blue -gum of Tasmania, and three years after planting were generally from 

 thirty-five to forty feet high and from five to nine inches in diameter, two feet 

 from the ground. In the spring of 1872 he planted about 50,000 more young 

 trees, covering about sixty acres of ground, and choosing for this planting a 

 high hill, the soil of which was quite sandy, and classed by farmers in the 

 neighbourhood as about the poorest soil in the vicinity. A certain and com- 

 plete failure was predicted with these trees, but the result has shown that Mr. 

 Stratton acted wisely, as the trees are making almost as rapid growth as those 

 of the first planting, which were nourished in rich valley land. At the age of 

 about two years these trees were from twelve to twenty-five feet high and from 

 two to four inches in diameter. Since the first planting Mr. Stratton has added 

 about 20,000 more trees of various varieties to his hill plantation, blue-o-um, 

 red-gum, iron bark, stringy bark, &c., all of which are doing well and look as 

 healthy and vigorous as if they were growing on their native Australian hills. 



