64 Practical Forestry 



occupy a sheltered situation if either ornament or utility be 

 considered as points of first importance. 



The Giant Arborvitae (Thuja gigantea) is fast coming to 

 the front as a British timber tree, and has already, at the 

 hands of far-seeing planters, received a fair amount of 

 attention. After a fair and impartial trial on our part, we 

 have found it to be perfectly hardy, even at high altitudes, 

 a fast grower and rapid timber-producer, a non-fastidious 

 subject as regards the quality of soil in which it is planted, 

 and one of the most easily managed and most accommodating 

 of trees. The quality of timber produced in this country is 

 such as to warrant us in speaking highly of it, it being of a 

 desirable yellow colour, fine-grained, easily worked, remark- 

 ably durable, and light in proportion to its bulk. From 

 the measurements of fully twenty-four specimens scattered 

 over an English park, we have found that the average 

 annual rate of growth is 22 in., but even this is exceeded 

 by young trees. 



The Norway Spruce (Picea excelsa). Whether as a 

 hardy, shelter-giving tree, or for the quantity of fairly good 

 timber it produces, the common or Norway spruce must 

 ever rank high in the list of useful trees that have been 

 found suitable for culture in the British Isles. That it is a 

 tree in every sense of the word admirably suited for exten- 

 sive planting is acknowledged by all, as it luxuriates at high 

 altitudes, and where fully exposed to our worst winds, and 

 at the same time produces a great quantity of timber that 

 has been found of excellent quality, well suited for general 

 constructive purposes. As a shelter tree few others can 

 equal the spruce, and when planted along the outskirts of 

 exposed plantations the amount of warmth and protection 

 it affords is quite surprising. 



The Silver Fir (Abies pectinata) is another of those trees 

 that have of late years fallen into disrepute, mainly owing 

 to the increased importation of foreign timber. That it is 

 an excellent and highly remunerative tree is unquestionable, 

 and the very fact of its thriving luxuriantly on soils where 

 the larch declines to grow should make it, in this country at 

 least, of great value as a forest tree. 



