THE NEW FORESTRY. 47 



nurses at all. We have been unable to find any clear explana- 

 tion of the practice, but it seems to be taken for granted that 

 it means the filling up of the spaces between the trees, compos- 

 ing a thinly-planted permanent crop, with a hardier species, in 

 order to shelter the permanent crop until it becomes estab- 

 lished, the nurses being gradually removed when no longer 

 needed. The system is a practical admission of the soundness 

 of the principle on which density of culture at all stages is 

 based ; but owing to the way in which the nursing system has 

 been carried out it has defeated its purpose, and, next to over- 

 thinning, probably no practice has caused so much loss as 

 over-nursing. In German forestry, a far greater number of 

 trees are brought on to the ground at planting than can be 

 found room for for any great length of time, the object being 

 to establish over-head canopy as soon as possiole, and promote 

 shelter and height growth. If in the British nursing system 

 the permanent crop had been planted thickly say three or 

 four feet from tree to tree, and nurses put in between, reducing 

 the distance to from eighteen inches to two feet, the system 

 might have been defensible, but the mistake has been that 

 the nurses have taken the place of the permanent crop, and 

 while of little or no value in themselves, have not fulfilled the 

 purpose for which they were intended. In other words, the 

 number of the trees to the acre of the permanent crop have 

 been far too few, and the number of nurses disproportionately 

 large, and both together planted so far apart that they could 

 afford no protection to each other when it was most needed, 

 viz., the first few years after planting. In addition to this, 

 the nurses have often been of the wrong kind, and been left 

 too long, their removal then causing a severe check to the 

 permanent crop, as may be seen in the New Forest and else- 

 where, where the oaks have become prematurely stunted. So 

 far as we know, the nursing system adopted in this country 

 is unknown elsewhere, and one or two examples will suffice 

 to show to what absurd lengths the practice has been carried. 

 At page 5 84 of " The Forester," is a coloured diagram, made 

 out with much care, that has led many astray. This diagram 

 shows the permanent or ultimate crop of timber trees, consist- 

 ing of oak, ash, elm and sycamore, planted from twelve to 

 seventeen feet apart, or rather less than three hundred trees 

 to the imperial acre, where from four to five thousand ought to 

 be the number. The spaces between the hard-wood species 

 named are filled up with larch and Scotch fir, from four feet 

 to six feet apart over all, or at a total average rate, hard-woods 



