130 Method adopted by Robert Twmer, Esq., 



In considerable spaces of these enclosnres, tleemed unfit for the 

 principal object of raising oaks, Scotch pines were planted, 4 ft. 

 apart, to fill up the ground. This introduction of pines into an 

 ancient oak forest was strongly objected to by men of taste, and 

 all the neighbouring gentry ; but it has proved the means, under 

 Mr. Turner's management, of raising fine oak plantations, even 

 on land heretofore considered incapable of growing oak. The 

 system by which this effect has been produced may be reduced 

 to the principle of giving the young oak trees ivarmth and shelter, 

 by using the pines as nurses, competent to protect them from the 

 ravages of frosts und winds. The mode of the application of this 

 principle is, to plant oaks of five years old, in plantations of Scotch 

 pines or pinasters of six to twelve years old (about 10 ft. or 12 ft. 

 high, and 4 ft. apart), in the place of alternate rows of the pines, 

 cut out to admit them. 



In the second year after planting the oaks, some of the pine 

 branches are roughly cut away. In the third or fourth year 

 (according to the growth of the trees), some of the pines may be 

 removed by taking out alternate trees ; and, two or three years 

 afterwards, by removing alternate rows. This thinning is to 

 be repeated, with caution, until the oaks have attained sufficient 

 strength and height to do without their nurses; which will proba- 

 bly be in about ten years, when the oaks will be about 20 ft. high ; 

 but care must be taken to preserve a belt of pines on the outside 

 of the plantation, to serve as a screen from the prevailing winds ; 

 and, also, in large plantations, to leave intermediate lines of pines 

 across the direction of such winds. Tiie outside belts are ten 

 rows in width (4 ft. apart), and the cross lines five rows. Similar 

 belts and lines, in old plantations of oak, across the prevailing 

 winds, will much assist their growth : in valleys, lines of pines are 

 planted across from one hill to the other, to break the force of 

 the current of wind up or down the valley. A few of the pines, 

 stripped of their under branches, are also suffered to remain, 

 scattered over the body of the plantation, as a permanent shelter 

 thereto. 



When a row of pine trees is taken away in the latter thinning, 

 the surveyor of the forest })lants oaks in their places, to prevent 

 the larger oaks from throwing out lateral branches, or spreading 

 too much in the head ; and to draw them up into straight hand- 

 some trees, without pruning. As these oaks advance in size, 

 they will, of course, require to be timely and judiciously thinned. 



The following are a few observations which occurred in view- 

 ing the plantations where this system has been adopted. 



Besides the advantage of shelter, the pines have the effect of 

 loosening the soil for the roots of the young oaks; and it is 

 argued, by some, that the pine roots act chemically in preparing 

 the land for the growth of oak. In pine plantations, now six- 



