1802 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART IT. 
old.” Half of them may then be cut down, one half of the remaining 1000 at 
25 years old, and the remaining 500 at from 30 to 35 years old. “ To plant 
nurses, therefore, is attended with very great pecuniary advantage. It will 
not only return the whole expense laid out in making the plantation, but pro- 
duce a very high rent for the land during the first 30 or 35 years ; whereas, 
if oaks alone were planted, nothing could be gained during this period, ex- 
cept by cutting them down when between 20 and 25 years old, for the sake 
of their bark.”? (Pract. Plant., p.225.) The most valuable part of this writer’s 
observations is what relates to the nature of the benefit to be derived from 
the nurses in such a climate as that of Aberdeenshire; which is, by preventing 
the first rays of the sun from suddenly thawing the frosts which have fallen 
perpendicularly on the young oaks. “ The deleterious effects of spring and 
autumnal frosts arise chiefly from the leaves being subjected to a sudden 
change of temperature, from the chills of the night to the strong rays of the 
morning sun. When the thaw takes place gradually, the injury done is com- 
paratively insignificant.” (p. 222.) “ If we wish, then, to preserve oaks from 
frost, we can do nothing better than to shade them from the morning sun. 
This we cannot do more effectually than by planting them, as above directed, 
among trees that have already made some progress. By such management 
the rays of the sun will not touch them till it has risen to a considerable 
height above the horizon ; and thus time will be allowed for the frost to dis- 
sipate; and the night dews to evaporate, by a slow and gradual process; so 
that the pernicious consequences arising to the young oaks from a sudden 
hange of temperature will be entirely prevented. It is not too much to say 
that a plantation of young oaks, thus sheltered from the outset, will make 
more progress in 5, than an unsheltered one will do in 10, years.” These 
observations may be considered as principally applicable to cold districts, 
whether from elevation or latitude; but they are also judicious even with 
reference to plantations in the comparatively warm climate of the south of 
England, as is evident by the practice of sheltering with Scotch pines in the 
plantations made in the New Forest, where the oak is indigenous, and where 
the soil is particularly well adapted to it. 
Cobbett would plant oaks in rows 25 ft. apart, and 25 ft. apart in the row ; 
placing the plants of one row opposite the middle of the intervals between the 
plants in the next row. Then, he says, “I would have four rows of hazel at 
5 ft. apart, and at 5 ft. apart in the row, between every two rows of oaks; and 
four hazel plants between every two oaks in the row itself. The hazel would 
rather, perhaps, outgrow the oaks; but it would shelter them at the same time; 
and where the hazel interfered’too much with the oaks, it might be cut away 
with the hook. By the time that the hazel coppices were fit to cut for the first 
time, the oaks would have attained a considerable height ; perhaps 8 ft. or 10ft. 
This would give them the mastership of the hazel; and, after the second cut- 
ting of the hazel, there would begin to be an oak wood, with a hazel coppice 
beneath; and in the meanwhile the coppice would have produced very nearly 
as much as it would have produced if there had been no oaks growing among 
it. By the time that four cuttings of the hazel would have taken place, the 
coppice would be completely subdued by the oaks. It would produce no 
more hoops or hurdles; but then the oaks would be ready to afford a profit.” 
(Woodlands, p. 434.) 
Mr. Yates, a planter who received a premium from the Society of Arts, 
having fixed on a proper soil and situation for a plantation of oaks, trenches 
strips of 3 ft. in width, and 30 ft. apart centre from centre, from 3 ft. to 6 ft. in 
depth ; it being his opinion that the oak derives its chief nutriment and strength 
from the taproot. The intermediate space.between the trenches may either be 
employed for the growth of sheltering trees, pines or firs, or for hazel, or other 
underwood, or kept in grass. A row of acorns, 2 in. apart, is dibbled in along 
the centre of each trench; the plants produced by which are thinned out in the 
autumn of the year in which they come up, and every year afterwards, till they 
stand at 30 ft. apart. Pruning goes on every year, by removing, “close to the 
