PLANTING. 25 



tion. The stem and branches remain stationary, until the roots, by the in- 

 fluence of a favourable season or two, sometimes force anew stem from 

 the base of the stinted one, which in the course of one year overtops it, 

 and becomes the stem or body of the tree ; the original stem, taking the 

 place of a secondary branch, soon disappears altogether. This is the inva- 

 riable consequence when the growth of the plant, under these circumstances, 

 is Jeft to the unassisted efforts of nature a fact upon which is founded 

 the practice of cutting down to the surface of the ground stinted young 

 plants, in order to produce superior stems, which always succeeds with 

 the oak, chestnut, and ash, but never with coniferous trees of pine and fir. 



During the summer of the second year, the plants which have escaped 

 the attacks of the enemies before alluded to will be strongly marked in the 

 rows, and the horse-hoe may now in consequence be substituted for the 

 hand-hoe : this will be found very beneficial as attaining the great objects 

 of perfect weeding, pulverizing, and rendering friable and porous the sur- 

 face of the soil at a diminished expense. The rows, however, will require 

 to be looked over and handweeded with care. 



Should the plants stand nearer to each other than one foot, they must be 

 thinned out to that distance in the spring of the third year of their growth. 

 In this process it is of the utmost importance that the smaller and least 

 healthy looking plants should be taken out, and those left which indicate 

 the possession of a vigorous constitution, without regard to the mere cir- 

 cumstance of exact distances. When a plant has a robust stem, clear bark, 

 and a plump leading bud, we may consider it as certain to produce a fine 

 tree, or to contend with most success against natural defects of soil and 

 climate, and accidental injuries. To protect young oaks against uncon- 

 genial climates, the best method is to plant nurse-trees of quick growth, 

 and well adapted to the soil, amongst them. An artificial climate is thus 

 produced, and to a certain extent, also, the soil is ameliorated by the roots 

 of these nurse-trees running near its surface, while the oak has its roots 

 obtaining nourishment from below ; the former, acting as drains, assist the 

 growth of the oak, until its own roots and stem have acquired sufficient 

 strength and dimensions to resist with effect the various unfavourable cir- 

 cumstances above alluded to. In soils suitable to oak this is not always 

 necessary ; but deficiencies of soil and climate are generally remedied by 

 the judicious planting of nurse-trees, of which we shall treat more parti- 

 cularly hereafter. The keeping down of the weeds, and the pulverizing of 

 the soil by the hoe, being unweariedly attended to, the young trees will make 

 rapid progress, and will require to be thinned out to four or five feet on 

 an average in the rows, in the fifth year from sowing, when they will have 

 reached that period at which the opposite and more general practice, that of 

 transplanting from seed beds to the timber sites, begins; and as the subse- 

 quent culture, pruning and thinning, is the same in both instances, to be 

 treated of separately, we shall proceed to consider the rearing of forest 

 trees by transplanting. No greater error exists in the planter's art than 

 the doctrine that trees should be raised on the same quality of soil as that 

 to which they are to be transplanted, as if a robust, healthy plant were less 

 likely to withstand its subsequent casualties of situation, soil, and local 

 climate, than a weaker plant with contracted sap vessels the invariable 

 consequence of a poor seed-bed soil. What is the intention of all the 

 various processes of culture which have been just described as essentially 

 necessary to the raising of oak from the acorn on a damp, cold, clayey soil, 

 but to enrich the soil, and render the seedling plants vigorous and healthy ? 

 and with how much less labour and expense can this be effected in a nur^ 

 sery bed of clean fresh soil, of whatever nature or texture, than on the 

 extensive site of an intended plantation of forest trees ? 



