ARBORICULTURE. 



Seed should be gathered in the autumn, and 

 immediately sown in nursery-beds ; or the sowing 

 may be deferred till spring. As soon as the seed- 

 lings are five or six inches high, they should be 

 rowed out to gain strength till finally transplanted. 

 There are several varieties of the common ash, 

 one of which is the weeping-branched, which, by 

 grafting high on the tall stem of the common ash, 

 forms a very ornamental weeping-tree. 



The Scotch or Wych Elm (Ulmus montana\ 

 and the English or Small-leaved Elm (Ulmus 

 campestris), of both of which species there are 

 many varieties, are valuable timber- trees. No 

 trees bear lopping or pruning better than the elms. 

 In the forest, they require considerable space, as 

 their natural habit is to throw out on every side 

 broad spreading branches. 



The Beech (Fagus sylvatica} is a native forest- 

 tree, occurring most commonly on the chalky dis- 

 tricts of the kingdom. When full grown, it is a 

 beautiful and stately tree ; and its timber is 

 convertible into many kinds of domestic articles, 

 very durable when polished by the cabinet-maker, 

 and equally so if kept constantly under water. 



Young plants are readily raised from the seed 

 sown on beds, and covered with loose soil about 

 an inch thick. Like other seedlings, they are, 

 when five or six inches high, rowed out on fresh 

 ground, till large enough to be transferred to their 

 final stations. The beech is not at all fastidious 

 as to soil ; but a subsoil of chalk or limestone is 

 most congenial. Few trees suffer less from mis- 

 management than the beech ; and upon thin, poor 

 soils, and even in high and exposed situations, no 

 hard-wooded tree is so worthy of a place. There 

 are several species ; the white- American, the dark- 

 purple, and the dark-leaved, are ornamental, and 

 are propagated by grafting on the common. 



At Newbattle Abbey, a few miles south from 

 Edinburgh, there are some remarkably fine la*ge 

 trees, most probably planted by the monks prior 

 to the Reformation. Professor Walker measured 

 a beech at this place in 1789 ; its trunk, where 

 thickest, was seventeen feet in girth, and the span 

 of the branches was eighty-nine feet. He thought 

 that it must have been planted between 1540 

 and 1560. It was blown down a short time 

 before the year 1809. It contained upwards of 

 1000 measurable feet of timber twenty loads, or 

 twenty-five tons and was with reason reckoned 

 among the largest beeches ever grown in Scotland. 

 Another at Taymouth, of a like size, and seemingly 

 coeval with this, was blown down when it had 

 reached more than sixteen feet in girth. A large 

 beech near Oxenford Castle, in Mid-Lothian, was 

 measured on the 6th of June 1763. At the height 

 of three feet from the ground, its circumference 

 was nineteen feet six inches. This fine tree was 

 then decaying. 



The Chestnut, or Sweet Chestnut, sometimes also 

 called the Spanish Chestnut (Castanea vesca), is a 

 splendid forest-tree, exceeding all other British 

 plants in its huge mass of foliage ; it is also 

 valuable for its timber, which is but little inferior 

 to the oak. In the south of Europe, it is chiefly 

 regarded as a fruit-tree ; but here, even in the 

 south of England, in the finest summers, the fruit 

 ripens but imperfectly. As a timber-tree, how- 

 ever, the Spanish chestnut deserves to be more 

 generally planted than it has been of late years ; 

 and for a coppice or underwood plant it has no 



superior. For the number, the straightness, and 

 durability of its poles, it excels all others, when a 

 little trouble is talcen to keep the growth perfectly 

 regulated with respect to the purpose for which 

 the crop is wanted. When timber or ornament is 

 the object, the trees must constantly be divested 

 of the shoots, which are apt to rise from the stem. 

 A strong loamy gravel seems to suit this tree best ; 

 and young plants are easily raised from the nuts, 

 dibbled in rows in the spring, and while in the 

 nursery, kept free from bottom-shoots. The sweet 

 chestnut requires considerable shelter, in order to 

 permit of its full development ; and should always 

 be cut down before arriving at maturity, as the 

 heart-wood is very liable to decay. 



The Common Walnut (Juglans regia] is chiefly 

 regarded as a fruit-tree, but it is no less valuable 

 for its excellent timber, which, from its lightness, 

 durability, and beauty, and the high polish it 

 takes on, is well adapted for house-furniture, and 

 is almost the only wood used for gun-stocks. 

 Where its fruit is of no great value, and especially 

 where it does not ripen, if planted among other 

 forest-trees, it would be drawn up into a shapable 

 single stem, as valuable as many others. Young 

 trees are readily raised from the nuts, like the 

 chestnut, and are similarly managed. 



The Sycamore or False-plane (Acer pseudo- 

 platanus) is a hardy native tree, and grows more 

 quickly than most of the other hard woods. It 

 attains a large size, and lives to a great age. It 

 prefers a dry sandy loam, with free exposure, but 

 may be profitably planted in almost any situation, 

 except in damp or mossy soil 



The Mountain Ash (Pyrus aucuparia}, famili- 

 arly known in Scotland as the rowan-tree, from 

 its beautiful clusters of red rowans or berries, is a 

 tree of small dimensions, but elegant form, and is 

 grown principally for ornament. It is hardy and 

 of easy growth in dry soils, and makes an excellent 

 skirter or outside tree in ornamental clumps and 

 plantations ; its finely formed foliage and white 

 blossom yielding variety in summer, and its deep 

 red berries as striking a variety in autumn and 

 early winter. 



The False-acacia (Robinia pseud-acacia) is not 

 only a highly ornamental, but also a valued timber- 

 tree, when allowed to attain a proper size. Though 

 a native of Virginia, and there called the locust- 

 tree, it has been recommended as a coppice-plant 

 for this country, on account of the very quick 

 growth of its young shoots, which rise from roots 

 after the stem is cut over ; and for the excellent 

 and durable quality of the poles for fencing, and 

 particularly as props for hops, &c. But whether 

 planted thickly for underwood, or more openly for 

 timber, the acacia requires much attention from 

 the pruner during the first five or six years of its 

 growth. Young plants are raised from seeds or 

 from layers, and thrive on any light sandy soil 

 The timber is highly prized by millwrights for cogs 

 and other friction purposes. 



The Wild Cherry or Gean-tree (Prunus avium) 

 is a hardy native, but is seldom cultivated as a 

 timber-tree ; nor is that care bestowed upon it 

 which it really deserves. The best specimens to 

 be met with are those which have grown by acci- 

 dent in woods ; but when such are felled, they are 

 readily purchased by the cabinet-makers. The 

 wood is very suitable for boring and for forming 

 musical instruments. It is therefore a tree not to 



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