CHAP. CV. CORYLA^CE^. QUE'RCUS. 1801 



a very effective mode of sheltering the oak ; for though, he says, " it seems to 

 choke and overgrow the oaks for some time, yet after a few years we com- 

 monly find the best oak plants in the strongest beds of furze." {Hunt. Evcl., 

 p. 93,, note.) Marshall prefers broom to the furze, as, being less disagreeable to 

 work among. In the Welbeck plantations, the Scotch pine, and several sorts 

 of fir trees, were tried, as well as the birch and the furze ; but in that soil and 

 situation they did not grow so fast as the birch ; and, being evergreen, the 

 young oaks did not thrive under them so well as they did under the deciduous 

 trees. Mr. Speechly observes that he found that the seedling oaks were not 

 injured, but rather improved, by tall grass and large weeds growing among 

 them ; which seems contrary to the nature of plants, and is certainly a practice 

 that ought not to be generally followed, since these tall weeds and grass must 

 prevent the sun and air from producing their full influence on the leaves of 

 the seedling oaks. In this, as in similar cases, it may be laid down as a prin- 

 ciple, that, in all cultivation, every step in the process ought to be regulated 

 according to art and design, and nothing whatever, or, at least, as little as 

 possible, left to unassisted nature. 



Pontey advises planting only 300 oaks on every statute acre, by which the 

 plants would stand at 12 ft. apart every way. He plants in rows, somewhat 

 irregular, at 4 ft. apart ; every third plant, in each row, being an oak, and the 

 others being larches, spruces, and Scotch pines ; giving the preference to the 

 larch. J 



Sang first plants the ground all over with larches, at 3 ft. or Sft. 6 in. apart. 

 After these have grown 2, 3, +, or even 5 years, pits are formed from 4 ft. to 

 7 ft. apart, in which acorns are inserted. {Plant. Kah, p. 193.) In this case, 

 the object is to produce an oak copse; which, however, if thought desirable, 

 may at any future period be so thinned out as to produce an oak wood. 



BilHngton and Cruickshank proceed on the same principles as these planters ; 

 that is, they provide the shelter previously to planting the trees. All these 

 writers agree in thinning out the sheltering trees gradually, and in regulating 

 the number of oaks which ai'e to stand on the acre by the fitness of the soil 

 to produce oaks, and by the relative value of oak copse and the wood of 

 larches and firs in a young state. Billington defers the thinning out of his 

 nurses as long as possible ; preventing them from whipping or shading the 

 young oaks, by shortening the side branches of the nurse trees which protrude 

 towards them. 



Cruickshank's " new method of rearing the oak" differs in nothing of im- 

 portance from that recommended by Mr. Sang ; as, indeed, the author ac- 

 knowledges (p. 209., note). He directs the ground to be first " well filled with 

 Scotch pines or larches ; " and, after these have risen to the height of about 4 ft. 

 from the ground, which, in Aberdeenshire, he says, will require from 4 to 7 

 years, he digs patches on which to sow acorns, at the rate of 400 patches to 

 a statute acre ; the object being, of course, an oak copse, similar to that of 

 Mr. Sang, at least in the first instance. The patches are prepared by digging 

 and manuring with lime ; and each is planted with 5 acorns, one in the centre, 

 and four around it. After 2 years' growth, all the plants are removed but one, 

 by cutting through their roots, 2 in. or 3 in. below the ground, with a sharp 

 chisel-like instrument with a long handle, made on purpose ; the plants re- 

 moved not being intended to be replanted. As soon as the nurses over- 

 shadow the oaks, the plants that do so, or their branches, are to be removed ; 

 but " all the Scotch pines and larches that will require to be taken out before 

 they are IG years old," this writer says, " will not render the plantation 

 thinner than a thriving one of the same kind of trees would, for its own sake, 

 need to be at 20 years after planting." (p. 234.) When the oaks are 3 

 years old, they are to be pruned for the first time, by cutting off the lower tier 

 of branches close to the stem ; and this operation is to be repeated every 2 

 years, till the oaks are between 30 and 40 years old. Two thousand of the 

 Scotch pines and larches," Cruickshank adds, " may be allowed to remain, not 

 only without injury, but with advantage, to the oaks, till they are 16 years 



