1800 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART IIIf. 
cated.” (Matthew on Naval Timber, p. 38.) The experience of Mr. Matthew 
agrees with that of Mr. Webster (Gard. Mag., vol. xii. p. 368.), and is, indeed, 
consonant to reason. Several planters of experience have stated to us, that 
they have found oaks of ten or-twelve years’ growth, taken up without any 
preparation, and the heads closely cut in when transplanted, succeed much- 
better than oaks one, two, or three years from the seed bed, or even smaller 
transplanted trees, in the same soil and situation. -Alexander Milne, Esgq., 
one of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, informs us that this. 
was the case several years ago, when a number of oaks, from 15 ft. to 20 ft. in 
height, were thinned out of a government plantation in the Forest of Dean, 
closely cut in at root and top, and planted in the open common or forest, | 
being only guarded from cattle by a few thorn bushes tied round their stems. 
The late Sir Uvedale Price was equally successful in transplanting oaks in 
this manner, at Foxley. : 
Artificial Shelter, it is allowed by almost all writers on the culture of the oak, 
is essentially necessary to insure the rapid progress of a young plantation. 
This arises from the natural tenderness of the young shoots and early leaves 
of the oak, which, even in the south of England, are frequently destroyed or 
much injured by frost in May; while, in elevated situations, it is found that 
even the bark does not so easily separate from the wood of standing trees 
after a cold night. Modern planters seem to be all agreed, that the best mode ~ 
of producing shelter for the oak is, by first covering the surface with Scotch 
pine, larch, or birch; the first being greatly preferred. After the nurse trees 
ave grown to the height of 4 ft. or 5 ft., openings should be cut in the plant- 
ations thus fornred, at the rate of from 300 to 500 according to some, and of 
60 to 100 according to others, to the acre; and in each of these openings an 
acorn, or an oak plant should be inserted, the soil having been duly pre- 
pared. This practice seems to have originated at Welbeck, in Nottingham- 
shire, in the plantations made by the Duke of Portland, and to have been 
first described by Speechly in Hunter’s edition of Evelyn’s Sylva; but it 
has since been recommended by Pontey, in his Profitable Planter (4th. ed., 
p- 213.); by Sang, in his edition of Niccl’s Planter’s Kalendar (p. 294.); by 
Billington, in his Series of Facts, &c.; by Cruickshanks, in his Practical Planter ; 
by Davis, in communications to the Bath and West of England Society; and 
by various others. It has also been extensively employed in the government 
plantations in the New Forest, Hampshire, under the care of Mr. Robert 
Turner, who, in 1819, was deputy surveyor of the New Forest; and to whom 
the merit is due of having first applied this method systematically, and shown 
the superiority of the Scotch pine, as a nurse plant for the oak, to all other 
trees. The poplar is universally rejected as a nurse for the oak, on account 
of the rapidity of its growth, and the very short period that elapses before it 
fills both soil and subsoil with its roots; and either covers the surface with its 
branches, or, if these are pruned off, raises its head to such a great height, that 
no plant of slower growth than itself can thrive near it. The elm, from the 
rapidity of its growth, is almost as objectionable as the poplar; and the same 
may be said of the willow. The pine and fir tribe supplies by far the best nurses 
for the oak, and, indeed, for all other hard-wooded timber trees; not only 
producing the most effective shelter, but the most profit when cut down. The 
Scotch pine and the spruce fir are preferable to any other pines or firs, and 
to the larch, because they are hardier, and grow more erect; whereas the 
pinaster and the maritime pine, though they will both stand the sea breeze, 
and the larch, though it grows with great rapidity even on barren soils and 
on mountains, almost always lean, over to one side. 
Speechly, in the extensive oak plantations made for the Duke of Portland 
in Nottinghamshire, on the exposed hills of what was formerly Sherwood 
Forest, found the birch the most suitable tree for shelter ; chiefly, we believe, 
because it springs up every where naturally in that part of the country, and 
seems to thrive in the light sandy surface soil there better than any other tree. 
Mr. Speechly also found that sowing the poorer parts of the hills with furze was 
