592. The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



similar material might be produced to-day, if close planting and slow growth were 

 the rule. To prove this, he gives the actual dimensions of Scots fir grown under 

 two different conditions in Ireland. 



Grown thirty to the acre, with 

 spreading crowns. 



Girth 



Height . 



Age . 

 Diameter . 

 Heart wood 

 Sapwood . 

 Rings per inch . 



These trees are quickly grown 

 on deep soft soil, and are liable to be 

 blown over. Timber, coarse, knotty, 

 light, and perishable ; large amount of 

 sapwood. 



Grown 200 to the acre, with 



small crowns. 



5 feet. 



75 .. 

 100 years. 

 20 inches. 



I inch. 

 10, regular. 



These trees were slowly grown on a 

 hill-side on poor and stony soil ; standing 

 close they resist storms. Timber fine- 

 grained, hard, heavy, durable, and equal 

 to best Memel. Scarcely any sapwood. 



Mr. Webber has kindly written to me that the trees just mentioned grow on his 

 own property at Kellyville, near Athy, in Co. Kildare. A beam, made out of the fine 

 pine timber grown on the hill-side, placed in the front of a conservatory twenty-five 

 years ago, is still sound and good. Mr. Webber has Scots pine thriving on pure rock, 

 where there is little or no soil. He states that at Emo Park near Portarlington and 

 on the road to Maryborough there are striking instances of pine succeeding on pure 

 black bog, and self-sown seedlings may be seen spreading all over the turf-moss. He 

 reiterates the conclusions given above, namely, that the pine should be planted 

 densely on poor soils, where it will resist the wind and yield timber without any 

 appreciable sapwood, whereas on deep soft soils it is easily blown over and yields 

 coarse and valueless timber. In the bog in Emo Park, Mr. Webber found great 

 bases of Scots pines with their roots in the boulder clay, of gigantic size, showing 

 that the tree was indigenous before the bog began to grow ages ago. 



in some parts of Ireland, Scots pine may be seen thriving on deep peat-moss, 

 the condition necessary for success being judicious preliminary drainage. In mosses 

 soaking with water, trees languish and die on account of the lack of air at their roots. 

 On the other hand, if the drainage is too deep, the upper layer of the peat becomes 

 so dry, that the trees suffer from want of water. Near Castledawson in Co. Derry, 

 a considerable area of undrained peat-moss is covered by healthy and vigorous pine 

 trees, which are natural seedlings, the product of seeds blown from an adjoining 

 plantation. Here, however, the peat-moss rests on the side of a sloping sandhill and 

 is not waterlogged. Natural pine seedlings are often seen on peat-mosses, struggling 

 for life in the wettest situations ; and doubtless, if cattle and rabbits were excluded, 

 these would in time take possession. At Churchill in Co. Armagh, the property of 

 Harry Verner, Esq., considerable plantations of Scots pine, intermixed with a small 

 proportion of larch, were made in 1861 on deep peat-moss, which had been thoroughly 



