J2 



NEW ENGLAiND FARMER. 



ON PLANTING FOREST TREES. 



From a paper communicnied to the Balh and If est of 

 England Society ; by Mr Davis, sttward to the Mur- 

 quis of Bath. 



[Concluded from pn^e 42.] 

 Whether the Land to be planted should be previ- 

 ously dvg or not. 



This depends on the nature of the soil. Ail 

 tliat is required is, that the roots should have 

 room to grow without obstruction. A light 

 sand need not be made lighter by digging. StiiT, 

 heavy clciys, with a surface of only live inches 

 of vegetable mould, require that surface to be 

 deepened to admit tlie roots. Such soils should 

 be dog, or, as it is called, trenched, two spits 

 deep, burying the top soil under. This should 

 be done a year before planting, if possible, and 

 the soil exposed to the sun and wind. The 

 expense will be about £8 per acre. But it has 

 been found by experience to be wrong to plant 

 it with a previous crop of potatoes. In sanih 

 and other light soils it will be quite sufficient to 

 dig holes 3i feet wide and 18 inches deep, at 

 4j feet asunder, (avoiding rows as much as 

 possible) which will take about 2560 trees to 

 an acre. These holes may be begun early 

 in autumn. The best earth put in the bottom, 

 and the rest laid at the sides, so that the holes 

 may be ready for the trees to be planted as soon 

 as they are brought to the spot. 



Directions for making plantations on poor, expos- 

 ed Land, intended hereafter for IJnder-jioods, 

 with a mixture of Fir Timber alone ;* with Hints 

 for their future Management. 

 Plantations in exposed situations should al- 

 ways be so large as that the trees may shelter 



* The botanical name of the Scotch fir is Pinus S\/l- 

 vestris. The Philadelphia edition of Willich's Domes- 

 tic Encyclopedia, printid in 1821, says, " an experi- 

 ment is now making with the Jir, as a hedge by Mr. 

 Coxe, near Yorktown, in Pennsylvania, whose experi- 

 ence of the tree in Europe, has induced him to import 

 them, and attempt their propagation." 



The same publication asserts that " this species of 

 fir is one of the most useful plants in the whole vegeta- 

 ble creation ; it furnishes the best red or yellow deal, 

 ■which is employed in the making of masts, floors, 

 wainscots, tables, boxes, and for numberless other pur- 

 poses. The trunk and branches of this species, in 

 common with the rest of the pine-tribe, afford excellent 

 Ijitch and tar. The tops, or young tender shoots, are 

 an useful substitute for fodder, especially during the 

 •winter season. The roots, when divided into small 

 splinters, are employed by the poor as a substitute for 

 candles. The outer bark is of considerable use in 

 tanning leather ; the inner rind is by the inhabitants of 

 Lock-Broom, in the county of Ross, converted into 

 ropes. In the more northern parts of Europe it is in 

 times of scarcity made into bread ; for this purpose the 

 iuhabitanta select a tree, the trunk of which is smooth 

 and contains the least portion of rosin ; they strip off 

 the bark in the spring, dry it gently, then reduce it 

 to powder, and knead it with a small quantity of corn 

 meal and water, in which state it is baked into bread. 

 The young cones when distilled, afford an essential di- 

 uretic oil, somewhat resembling that of turpentine ; a 

 resinous extract is likewise prepared from them, and 

 believed to possess virtues similar to those of the 

 balsam of Peru. An infusion of the buds is higlily re- 

 commended as an antiscorbutic." — Ed. N.E. Farmer. 



each other; and whatever may be the tree de- 

 sired to form the future plantation, a mixture of 

 Scotch fir is necessary to shelter the rest from 

 the sun in summer, and the cold in winter. — 

 The former may be planted at 8| feet apart, 

 viz. G40 to an acre, and then crossed with an 

 equal number of Scotch firs, which will fill half 

 the holes. The oiher half may be filleii with 

 plants of birch, alder, Spanish chesnut, willow, 

 hazel, &.C. for underwood, or such of them as 

 are proper for the soil. No other care will be 

 necessary for this plantation but to keep it well 

 fenced. At three or four years old, when the 

 birch, &c. have taken good root, and have be- 

 gun to make strong shoots, cut them down to 

 within three feet of the ground, and trim 

 up the lower side branches of the forest 

 trees close to their bodies, but leave the firs un- 

 touched. At about ten years afler, cut off all 

 the underwood, and such of the forest trees as 

 are crooked and unfit for timber, at about five 

 or six inches from the ground, and cut do^vn 

 such of the fits as really obstruct the growth of | 

 the young timber trees, but no others. The 

 rest will still continue to afford shelter to the 

 timber trees, and should only be removed by 

 degrees, when they really do mischief, and not 

 before. A young oak or ash will grow through 

 the middle of the branches of a Scotch fir, 

 without receiving any injury, especially if they 

 are of the same age. 



If this plantation be intended for timber only, 

 a mixture of many kinds of forest trees may 

 be admitted, and will be the most ornamental 

 when full grown ; but if a coppice of underwood, 

 with a proper mixture of trees, is desired, 

 beech must be excluded. It is an unneighbour- 

 ly tree, and sutlers nothing to grow under it ; 

 and Spanish chcsntit and ."iycaraore have in gen- 

 eral too large heads to permit underwood to 

 grow under them. Oak and ash are the fittest 

 accompaniment of underwood ; and a small 

 mixture of abeles* and standard birches, to va- 

 ry the colour in spring and autumn, will pro- 

 duce a beautiful effect. New planted coppices 

 should be cut at ten years' growth, for the first 

 two rounds, and the number of timber trees re- 

 duced gradually at every cutting, by stacking off" 

 the unhandsome ones for underwood, while at 

 the same time the young plants which spring 

 up spontaneously should be encouraged for a 

 future supply of timber. Let it be remarked, 

 that if there are one, or even two handsome 

 shoots on a stool of an oak that has been cut 

 off for underwood, they may still be very pro- 

 fitably left for timber. Trees of that descrip- 

 tion will grow much faster, <nnd be quite as 

 good as real plants, provided the stool of the 

 root be young and sound. 



Situations for Planting, and kinds of Trees re- 

 commended. 



1. 0.\ Hills. — On the high exposed tops of 

 hills it will be difficult to raise coppices of un- 

 derwood, and indeed useless to attempt it. A 

 large handsome grove of trees is all that can 

 be expected, though the planting may be con- 

 ducted in the same way as nbove recommend- 

 ed, so as to make as much shelter as possible 

 to the bodies of the trees when young ; but the 

 uoderwood will dwindle after the first cutting, 

 and die in a few years. In such situations oak 



trees mnst not be expected to prosper. Ash 

 and sycamore, whi.ch have large resinous buds, 

 and make large inapliable shoots not liable to 

 whip each other in the spring of the year 

 while they are tender, are the most likely to 

 prosper ; and more especially if (he situation 

 be exposed to the south west winds. Beeches 

 will thrive very well on hills, if not within 

 reach of the spray of the sea. But on the 

 steep sides of hills, particularly on the north 

 or west sides, if the soil has a tolerable depth, 

 as good underwood may be raised as in the 

 most fertile valleys, and the shelter of firs iu 

 their infancy is not always necessary. 



In many parts of Gloucestershire and North- 

 wills, the profit that has been made by plantin:j 

 ■witlo-.c and ash for underwood, on the cold, nas- 

 ty and even boggy soil of the sides oi' hill?, i* 

 almost beyond credibility. Eight pounds per 

 acre, p^'.r annum, have actually been made of 

 planlatiions of this description in the neighbour- 

 hood of Highworth, on land not intrinsicallv 

 worth ten shillings per acre for any other pur- 

 pose. 



2. I-\ Valleys. — In making coppices for under- 

 wood with a mixture of timber in valleys, the 

 same rules as before given should be observed 

 as to the distance of the trees to be planted, 

 but the Scotch firs may be omitted. If the 

 land be a strong clay, it ought to be trenched 

 two spits deep, and then well drained with deep 

 open drains before the trees are planted. If it 

 be ])eatii, it should be dug up into beds, so as to 

 break the whole surface, and then planted with 

 such sorts of underwood as are most congenial 

 to the couutry and the soil, with a proper mix- 

 ture of such plants for timber as are observed 

 to grow well in similar soils and situations in 

 the same neighbourhood ; and the same aftcr- 

 manngement should be used as is herein before 

 recommended. 



Time of planting recommended. 

 Where a great many trees are to be planted 

 in one season, some must be planted early, and 

 some late ; and it must be acknowledged that 

 the seasons vary so much, that what is right in 

 one season is wrong in another. The great 

 desideratum is to keep the roots of new-plant- 

 ed trees steady and firm in the land, so that 

 they may not be disturbed by the wind from 



getting nourishment and forming new fibres. 



Too much wet and too much drought are equal- 

 ly injurious to the roots. It therefore follows 

 that, as a general rule, hot land should be planted 

 early, and cold land late. A wet winter would 

 be hurtful to the latter, and a dry spring to the 

 former ; and firs, and indeed all evergreens 

 should be planted in the spring ; they carry too 

 tnnch soil to stand a windy winter. But avoid 

 planting when the weather is very wet, and 

 particularly when snow is on the land; it chills 

 the earth and renders it unfit for vegetation ; — 

 and on that account Christmas is the very worst 

 time in the year for planting.* 



* Abcle is a species of Poplar. 



*Mr. Miller advises to plant acorns as soon as they 

 are ripe in October, which will come up in the follow- 

 ing April ; because if they are attempted to be kept 

 they will sprout, although spread thin. Others ad- 

 vise that the acorns be gathered as soon as they fall iu 

 autumn, and kept in a box, or boxes of sand till the 

 following spring ; then to open them, and carefully 

 plaut those of them which are >prouted. But no time 



