PLANTING. 43 



quent outlay of capital, in making and rearing the plantation, or in respect 

 to the quantity and quality of timber produced on a given space of land, 

 and in a given space of time. The rearing of oak timber from seed on the 

 spots where the trees are to remain for timber is, however, an exception to 

 the above conclusion under the following restrictions ; namely, that the 

 acorns of the best variety of oak (Quercus robur vel longipeduncidata} can 

 be obtained of good quality, at a reasonable cost, in sufficient quantities ; 

 that the land to be sown is in a perfectly clean state of culture, in good 

 heart on the surface, and free from stagnant moisture ; that labour is 

 cheap ; and that ample and complete protection from the attacks of vermin 

 can be ensured to the acorns, and to the seedling plants till they equal in 

 size three years' old nursery plants. When all these circumstances can be 

 combined, then the mode of rearing the oak on its timber site from seed 

 should be adopted, but not otherwise, or disappointment will be certain to 

 follow. 



Simple plantations consist of one or two species of trees only ; mixed 

 plantations of many different species. The latter, on suitable soils, are 

 the most profitable ; they afford an earlier, more permanent, and a larger 

 return for capital than simple plantations. The judicious arrangement 

 of the different forest trees, not only promotes the greatest returns of pro- 

 fit from the plantations, but likewise effects the highest embellishment to 

 the estate and surrounding country*. 



Shelter in winter and shade in summer are also important points. 

 Evergreen trees, and such deciduous ones as retain their leaves to a later 

 period of the year (the hornbeam, beech, and some varieties of the oak) 

 afford much greater shelter in winter and in early spring, when it is most 

 wanted, than those which lose their leaves early in autumn, and should, 

 therefore, be planted wherever shelter is most desired. Shade is best 

 afforded by trees which, rising with naked stems to a certain height, after- 

 wards send out an extended series of branches, as the oak, beech, chestnut, 

 and elm, which can be readily trained to that state by pruning 1 , and their 

 spreading branches and umbrageous foliage are highly superior for this 

 intention than those of the ash, sycamore, plane, &c. 



Although mixed planting, as just now observed, is the most profitable, 

 and, under skilful massing and grouping, the most embellishing to the 

 landscape, yet there are certain circumstances connected with the growth 

 of the various species of forest-trees, which, when they occur, effectually 

 control the choice of the planter in his modes of arrangement : these are, 

 first, the peculiar nature of the soil to be planted ; secondly, the climate, or 

 the exposure and elevation of the site of the plantation. In planting, soils 

 may be divided into simple and mixed. The latter allows of the fullest 

 scope to mixed planting. Simple soils are those which contain the 

 smallest number of ingredients in their composition, or which consist 

 chiefly of one substance ; as sandy soils, containing from nine-tenths of 



* Planting the same sort of trees in masses was originally practised at Blair Adam, 

 e. g. Half an acre of oaks, half an acre of beeches, half an acre of elms, half an acre of 

 Spanish chestnuts, &c. This was altered for a mixture of different forest-trees, but Lord 

 Chief Commissioner Adam has resorted recently to the original practice, especially on the 

 sides of hills. His reason for this is, that mixing trees of different sorts (their growths 

 being unequal) leads in thinning tojsparing the more forward tree, though the tree of less 

 value : whereas, uniting the same species of tree in masses, insured their growing pretty 

 nearly in an equal degree, so that the choice in thinning secured the preservation of the 

 best growing tree; and with regard to the effect of embellishment, the large masses of 

 different colours, especially on the slope of a hill, appears to have more effect in point of 

 grandeur than intermixture, the latter being more adapted to pleasure-grounds and the 

 woodlands near a residence. 



