1808 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 
among them. Under their protection, oak saplings, which delight in sheltered 
places, would thrive exceedingly ; be safe from the browzing of cattle, without 
the expense of fencing; and the lawns would become wooded with stately 
timber. When oaks are planted in groups, one or other often gains the mas- 
tery, or forces the rest to bend forward till they have room for ascent. Trees 
in groups, when few in number, enjoy a liberty nearly equal to single ones: 
each tree has a space where its roots may draw nutrition; and, as these and 
the branches usually follow the same direction, the leading roots of the exte- 
rior trees will tend outwards; and, finding nothing to obstruct their passage, 
will furnish supply sufficient to keep their trunks thriving, notwithstanding 
superiority of their antagonists. Hence it is manifest, that any quick-growing | 
trees of small value may be used as instruments for forcing seedling oaks out. 
of their upright line, Cuttings of coppice withy (Salix caprea) will, by the 
freedom of their, growth, overpower the saplings, bearing them down almost 
to the ground for a time; and, the purpose being effected, may, for relief of the 
oaks, be cut down as often as requisite; till, as the oaks gain power, the withies, 
in their turn, give way. Plants like these, which extract nutrition of a dif- 
ferent nature, though they promote a crook, will not starve or check the oaks 
beneath them. Trees growing out of a bank frequently take a favourable 
turn: such are accepted by the king’s purveyors as compass pieces, which 
gain admission into the dockyards, though of less dimensions, and at a higher 
price than straighter timber. It may be proper, therefore, in new enclosures, 
to throw up the banks high and broad; to plant quicksets on the outer slopes, 
and on the tops withies; and, at due distances near the base of the inner _ 
slopes, to dib in acorns, which in their future growth must incline forwards, 
to avoid the projecting withies, and be some years before they can attempt a 
perpendicular growth. In such cases the crook will be near the but end, in 
the stoutest part of the timber, and the curve, thus formed in infancy, will 
retain its shape as long as the tree endures.” (Jdid., p. 59.) 
Marshall has the following judicious observations on this subject: — “ In 
forests and other wastes, whether public or appropriated, especially where the 
soil is of a deep clayey nature, oaks will rise spontaneously from seeds that 
happen to be dropped, if the seedling plants should be in situations where they 
are defended by underwood or rough bushes from the bite of pasturing ani- 
mals; and some few of the plants thus fortuitously raised may chance to take 
the form desired by the ship carpenter ; but this is all mere matter of accident. 
By freeing the stems of young trees from side shoots, and by keeping their 
leaders single, a length of stem is with certainty obtained; and, by afterwards 
checking their right growth, and throwing the main strength of the head into 
one principal bough (by checking, not removing, the rest), a crcokedness of 
timber is with the same certainty produced; and, what is equally necessary in 
ship timber, a cleanness and evenness of contexture results at the same time. 
The dangerous, and. too often, we fear, fatal, defect caused by the decayed 
trunks of dead stem boughs being overgrown and hidden under a shell of sound 
timber (a defect which every fortuitous tree is liable to) is, by this provident 
treatment, avoided: the timber, from the pith to the sap, becoming uniformly 
, sound, and of equal strength and durability.” (P/.and Rur. Or., vol. i. p. 141.) 
Billington produced crooked timber, in His Majesty’s wood at Chopwell, in 
Durham, by fastening oak trees, that were not too strong to be hurt in bending, 
to larch trees, and keeping them “ in a bent position for about two years.” 
He tied the oaks to the larches with twisted withs, tarred twine, or matting; 
but, as he does not inform us in what state the trees were eight or ten years 
after having been subjected to this operation, his experiment may be considered 
as having been only commenced. He gives directions, illustrated by wood- 
cuts, for pruning off the smaller branches from the larger ones, so as to leave 
the head of the tree with only three or four large arms, instead of a multitude 
of branches; and this operation, if commenced in time, and the side branches 
cut off when not above 1 in. in diameter, promises to be of use. We have 
heard nothing of these trees since, finding, on enquiry at the Office of Woods. 
