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OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



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331 



struggle for some years which shall get the better. By 

 degrees the weaker plants are overtopped, and die ; but still 

 others struggle for life, and maintain the contest; and thus 

 it goes on till they have attained a considerable height, when 

 the boughs of the most vigorous trees spreading out above, 

 overtop all those that are near; and thus a sufficient space is 

 allowed for these trees to flourish, till they attain their full size. 

 During this long struggle, the growth of the trees is slow, 

 and consequently the fibres of the wood very close and hard. 

 The side-branches too, having no room to spread abroad, are 

 kept weak, and are soon suffocated; by the winds and rubbing 

 of the trees round them, these branches are soon broken off, 

 and the bark begins to close over the wound. The stem thus 

 becomes clear of branches and smooth, and all the wood that 

 afterwards grows over it is free from knots. In artificial 

 plantations we follow an opposite course : anxious to admire 

 the progress of our trees, no measures are adopted to retard 

 their progress at an early period, but rather the reverse; and 

 were we even inclined to follow nature, the very expense of 

 planting so many trees on an acre would be a decisive bar to 

 such enterprises. The young trees are of course planted 

 at a considerable distance, and are encouraged to grow as 

 quickly as possible, and thus the wood is coarse in the grain, 

 and soft. The branches too, having room to spread, advance 

 with great luxuriance, and continue to grow till they attain a 

 large size, and of course render the wood full of large knots. 

 Though we cannot afford to make our plantations so thick 

 as those that grow naturally, we should approach as near as 

 prudence will permit; and by planting Larches at two feet 

 distance, should derive profit sufficient to repay all the 

 expenses. At this distance an English statute acre will con- 

 tain 10,890 plants. Being planted in rows, the younger the 

 better, the ground laid dry, well fenced, and no grass or 

 weeds suffered to choak them ; in this state they may remain 

 six, eight, ten, or twelve years, according to the soil, or the 

 purposes for which the thinnings are wanted, when they 

 should be thinned for the first time. This, however, ought 

 not to be too long delayed, lest the tops, by growing too 

 close, should be so much smothered as to occasion a hurtful 

 gap when the thinnings are taken away. One row should 

 now be wholly taken out, so as to leave the plants four feet 

 apart, and, allowing three rows to remain entire, take out the 

 fourth, and so on. Thus, though the row on each side the 

 opening will lose its support on one side, its branches being 

 still intermixed with those on the three other sides, will give 

 it sufficient support. It is necessary to cut oat a row com- 

 pletely, to admit of trailing out the long spires, together with 

 their tops, which could not otherwise be done. In conse- 

 quence of this opening, the branches above will be permitted 

 to grow more freely, and in this state they should remain till 

 they intermingle again above, when they should receive the 

 second thinning, by taking out the middle row that was left 

 at the first, which will leave the plants in the rows four feet 

 apart, and two feet from each other in the rows. When the 

 branches close again, the third thinning may be given, by 

 cutting out every fourth row crosswise, and the fourth by 

 taking out the cross row that was left between the two conti- 

 guous to it. Now the trees in a whole plantation are again 

 reduced to a square, standing four feet apart, and there will 

 ,en remain 2722 trees on an acre, which deducted from the 

 10,890 planted, leaves 8168 taken out in successive thinnings. 

 After a proper interval, the trees might be thinned as above 

 described, till they are gradually reduced to squares at eight 

 feet apart, which is perhaps the greatest distance that should 

 be allowed to trees of this kind. At this distance an acre 

 will contain 680 trees. If their thinnings be begun from the 

 VOL. ii. 93. 



1 CU 



the 

 10 



sixth to the tenth year from the time of planting, the whole 

 may be completed thus far by the thirtieth or fortieth year of 

 their growth ; during which time there will have been sold 

 10,210 spars, from fifteen to fifty feet in height, and propor- 

 tional thickness, in each acre. If it be thought advisable to 

 continue the thinning farther after this period, no whole 

 rows ought to be cut out any where, but only a single tree 

 here and there. Now if we suppose that the sale of the spars 

 would.be sufficient to defray the expenses of making and 

 upholding the plantation ; and that each tree, at fifty years' 

 growth, instead of containing 360 feet of wood, as those at 

 Dunkeld are known to do, should at the same edge measure 

 no more than seventy feet each, which is less than one-fifth 

 of the others ; in that case the 680 trees on an acre would 

 contain 476,000 cubic feet of timber, which, at one shilling a 

 foot, would be 2380, from which, if the rent be deducted, 

 at five shillings an acre, which for fifty years is 12. 10s. and 

 interest for payment withheld 14. 10s. more, there will be a 

 clear profit of 2353, without taking into the account any 

 advantage arising from the turpentine. The late learned 

 Bishop of Landaff, Dr. Watson, remarks, that the highest and 

 most craggy mountainous tracts in our island, two acres of 

 which do not afford sufficient sustenance for six* months iu 

 the year to one sheep, might with a great prospect of success 

 be planted with Larches ; and thus states the probable profit 

 which would attend such plantations. A thousand acres of 

 such land might be enclosed with a circular wall six feet in 

 height, where the stones can be easily got for six shillings an 

 acre, or 300 for the whole : five hundred Larches, two feet 

 in height, so as to enable them to resist the long grass, might 

 be planted on each acre for fourteen shillings ; hence a plan- 

 tation of 500,000 might be made for 1000. Now this sum 

 improved at compound interest, at the rate of 4 per cent, 

 would in sixty years amount to the sum of 10,519: this is 

 the accumulated loss attending the enclosing and planting 

 one thousand acres of rocky land in sixty years. The rent 

 of 1000 acres, at one penny an acre, is 4. 3s. 4d. a year; 

 in eight years the Larches would be out of all danger from 

 sheep, so that the loss of rent ought only to be estimated for 

 eight years ; but 4. 3s. 4d. a year, though improved after the 

 same rate of compound interest, would not amount to 40 in 

 eight years; say, however, it would amount to 81, which is 

 allowing more than two-pence an acre rent; then would the 

 whole expense in sixty years be 10,600. If the amount of 

 81 for fifty-two years be taken into consideration, the ex- 

 pense will be 11,222. The sheep are here supposed to be 

 shut out of the plantation for eight years ; but if it should 

 be found that sheep will not crop the Larch, and I, says Dr. 

 Watson, have reason to believe they will not, they need not 

 be shut out at all ; nor on districts where nothing but sheep 

 are depastured, need any fence be made. The advocates for 

 close planting, instead of five hundred, would require five 

 thousand Larches for each acre : I am not convinced of the 

 utility of such close planting, except where it is intended to 

 nurse up Oaks, or other kinds of wood; but if that mode 

 should be adopted, the thinnings after twenty years' growth 

 would pay the expense of it. At the expiration of sixty 

 years, suppose that only 250 Larches remained on each acre, 

 or that one-half had perished, the probable value of them 

 may be thus estimated. From many experiments made by 

 myself, and collected from others, I find the annual increase 

 in the circumference of the Larch, at six feet from the ground, 

 to be one inch and a half on an average of several years; and 

 this inference has been drawn from the actual admeasurement 

 of Larches in different parts of England and Scotland, and of 

 different ages, from ten years old to fifty. On this supposition 

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