PLANTING.' 49 



The larch, pine, and fir tribe in general will succeed well on a soil of 

 this texture, although the beech comes to the greatest perfection, or is, 

 perhaps, the plant most profitable to employ in planting- soils of this 

 nature, particularly when the subsoil happens to be deep sand, as is the 

 case of the soil on which the celebrated beech trees grow in Woburn 

 Abbey Park. A figure of one of the finest of these trees is given in Pontey's 

 Forest Pruner. 



4th. Light sandy siliceous soil, incumbent on a damp clayey subsoil. 

 Siliceous sand, of various degrees of fineness . . 290 



Gravel partly calcareous . . . .40 



Impalpable loamy matter, consisting of carbonate of lime . 5 

 Silica, or earth of flints . . . .38 



Alumina or clay . . . . .9 



Oxide of iron . . 5 



Decomposing* vegetable matter . . .8 



Moisture and loss . .5 



400 



The oak grows rapidly on this soil, and should constitute the principal 

 timber tree of the plantation. The sweet chestnut also attains to great 

 maturity in the same kind of soil. The nurse trees most proper are the 

 larch, spruce, and particularly the silver fir. The elm planted on this 

 soil had not attained to the size of the above mentioned trees in the 

 same period from planting, but the timber was considered of a superior 

 quality. 



5th. Clayey loam, incumbent on a clay subsoil. 



Coarse gravel, partly calcareous . . .40 



Fine sand . ... 190 



Carbonate of lime * . . 16 



Decomposing vegetable fibre . . .14 



Silex, or pure matter of flints . . 90 



Alumina, or pure matter of clay . f . .30 



Oxide of iron . . . .7 



Soluble vegetable extract and saline matters, containing 



gypsum, common salt, and sulphate of potash . 5 



Loss and moisture . . . .8 



400 



This soil brings the oak to the highest state of perfection. The above 

 results of analysis were afforded by an average sample of the soil of a part 

 of Woburn Abbey Park, where some of the finest oaks probably in Eng- 

 land may be seen, excepting those of Lord Bagot at Blythfield Park. 

 The following nine trees grow near together on the soil above described, 

 and are therefore here selected to show the powers of a soil so constituted 

 in the production of oak timber. 



Oak No. 1. The bole or stem measures, in timber, upwards of 50 feet in 

 height, and the limbs extend from the stem 40 feet. rt In . 



At 3^ feet from the ground . 17 3 circumference. 



At 10~ ditto ditto . 14 6 



At 20 ditto ditto . 14 



Oak No. 2. At 4 ditto ditto . 17 9 



At 7 ditto ditto . 15 6 



At 13 ditto ditto . 13 6 



At 20 ditto ditto . 12 9 



E 



