188 STATE OF ARBORICULTURE IN NORTH LANCASHIRE, 
XII. The Present State and Future Prospects of Arboriculture in 
North Lancashire. By Groran Dopps, Overseer, Wyreside 
Cottage, Lancaster. 
In describing the arboricultural features of the Palatine County 
of Lancaster, a glance at the map of England will at once convince 
the eye of the experienced that trees will be grown with difficulty 
when the maritime exposure is taken into account. Lying, as it 
does, along the coast of the Irish Sea, it is fully exposed to the 
strong westerly winds that blow therefrom. Also the extensive 
Bay of Morecambe adds largely to the extent of the seaboard. 
Still in some of the valleys and inland parts of the county trees 
thrive admirably. 
In reporting upon a county such as Lancashire it would be im- 
possible to give the whole county its due merit in a paper such 
as this, consequently I confine my remarks to the Upper or Northern 
Division. 
The Northern Division is generally known as that portion lying 
north of the river Ribble, and extends from the important town of 
Preston to the boundaries of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and York- 
shire, and the area of this division comprehends about 650 square 
miles. Although the climate of Lancashire is humid, the air in the 
Northern Division is generally pure and salubrious. In the hilly 
and elevated districts on the north and eastern boundaries it is cold 
and piercing, but in the lower districts, shelving to the south and 
west, it is in general mild and genial. Severe frost is seldom 
experienced in the low lands, and a fall of snow is generally soon 
dissolved by the mildness of an atmosphere loaded with saline 
particles, wafted by the western winds from the Irish Sea. 
The soil in the elevated parts is in general moory, heathy, and 
rocky. The lower portions of the sides of the hills and the valleys 
formed by them are commonly somewhat of the nature of holme. 
The flat tracts that spread at a considerable distance below them 
are chiefly of the loamy, clayey, or alluvial description, gravelly and 
mossy or peaty portions being found in all. 
That Lancashire at one period had been extensively covered with 
trees is evident, as traces of them are found in most of the peat 
mosses, the remains being chiefly oak. During the reign of Henry 
VIIL, I find the Royal Forests in Lancashire were Bowland, Wyres- 
dale, Bleasdale, and Fulwood, out of which the Chancellor, Attorney- 
