Plantations and Home Nurseries Competition, 1912. 217 



from such a temporary iiursery a sufficient number should be 

 left properly interspaced to grow up to form, part of the 

 permanent crop. 



Nursing and Management of Hardwoods. — In all cases 

 brought to our notice where the intention was to produce a 

 final crop of hardwoods, these had been introduced at com- 

 paratively wide intervals, the rest of the ground having been 

 filled up with conifer nurses. The object of so doing is mainly 

 a dual one, namely to save expense in the first instance, and at 

 an early date to obtain some return in the form of useful 

 thinnings. An idea also prevails that if the nurses are more 

 quick growing than the permanent crop, the latter will be 

 forced up by the nursing species, but it is doubtful whether 

 there is much in this contention. Admitting that it is in many 

 cases desirable to introduce conifers as nurses for hardwoods, 

 it was evident that the nurses frequently consisted of too many 

 species. In the majority of cases such nurses consisted of 

 larch, Scots pine, and spruce, and of these the larch would 

 appear to be much the most suitable, for not only are the 

 plants obtainable at a reasonable price, but no species gives a 

 higher return in the form of thinnings. Moreover, the larch 

 is a tree, producing as it does comparatively small branches, 

 which is not unduly aggressive, while its rapid growth in youth 

 secures the advantage of shelter for the species with which it 

 is mixed. The Scots pine, on the other hand, produces wide- 

 spreading branches, which are apt to do much damage to less 

 vigorous hardwoods with which it may be associated. The 

 earlier thinnings, too, of Scots pine are of comparatively little 

 value. Spruce makes a better nurse in some respects than 

 Scots pine, partly because it is not so assertive in youth, and 

 consequently does not, to the same extent, encroach on neigh- 

 bouring species, and paitly because in can grow fairly well 

 under the shade of other trees. But Si-ruce thinnings, though 

 perhaps more serviceable than those of the Scots pine, are of 

 much less value than larch poles. It would appear, therefore, 

 that where hardwoods are to be nursed with conifers the 

 larch, alone or mixed with a thin sprinkling of spruce, should 

 be depended on to secure the objects in vieAV. We have, at a 

 later point, something to say on the comparative merits of the 

 European and Japanese larches. 



The general method of establishing hardwood plantations 

 in Yorkshire would appear to be to set out oaks, beeches, 

 ashes, or whatever the species selected, at about 12 ft. intervals ; 

 that is to say, with lines 4 ft. apart, the hardwoods would 

 form every third plant in every third row, the rest of the 

 ground being occupied by the nursing conifers. The intention 

 of such an arrangement is that, when the conifers have all been 



