SECT. X. OF FOREST TREES. llj 



In open planting for timber, to make only the holes 

 good where the trees are fet, is fuflicient, it the foil is 

 not ftrong, (which generally fpeaking however it 

 mould be,) and in fuch plantations, the plough being 

 ufed for corn, or fome fort of crop to be carried oif, 

 the whole foil will be prepared for the trees' roots to 

 fpread. A plantation of this fort may be constantly 

 under the plough, till the trees fhade too much, and 

 then it may be fown down for gra/s, which laying 

 warm, and coming earlv, would be found ufeful. The 

 opportunity given to improve a foil by this cultivation, 

 would infure very fine timber. 



But a plantation of trees being made (as fuppofe of 

 pah) at due diftances, and the ground ploughed for two 

 .or three years, while they got. a little a-head, then it 

 might be /own profitably, with nuts, keys and feeds for 

 underwood, obfervingto thin the plants the fecond year, 

 and again the third, till two or three feet afunder in 

 poor ground, and to three or four feet diftance if rich. 

 .In fourteen or fifteen years, (or much fooner for fome 

 purpofes), the ajh poles, &c. will be fine, and meet with 

 a ready fale as ufeful {luff: Afterwards the underwood 

 will be fit to cut, in a firong ftate, every eleven or 

 twelve years. In the management of underwood, 

 fome have thinned the -plants while young, to three 

 .feet afunder, and cut them down at three years, to 

 about fix inches, in order to form flooh, which in about 

 ten years are cut, having, produced feveral (terns from 

 each. Some per fons have cut feedling trees .down at 

 this age to three inches for timber, leaving only one 

 ftrong moot to grow from eachflool; and thus finer 

 trees are frequently (or rather certainly) produced, 

 than from feedlings not cut down. 



The diftances of the timber plants, may be from 

 twenty-five to thirty-five feet, according to the foilj 

 or opinion oi the planter. If no view to underwood, the 

 above open planting may be made clofe, by (jetting firft 

 the principals (which mould be iinc plants) and then 



filling 



