TREES FOB ECONOMIC PLANTING. 



formation of woods and plantations at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, and the results have been highly satisfactory. 



The Scotch Pine (P. sylvestris) must on no account be 

 omitted from our list ; as, certainly for planting m exposed 

 situations, where few other trees could succeed, it is one of 

 the best. Probably the principal reason -Why this tree has 

 not been more generally cultivated, is on account of the 

 almost valueless timber it produces, for, of late years, it has 

 been a difficulty, unless in certain favoured districts, to get 

 rid of it at a remunerative ^frice. The finest quality of 

 Scotch pine timber, such as that produced in some of the 

 northern Scottish counties, no doubt, is even now fairly 

 remunerative ; but, generally speaking, that grown 

 throughout Southern Scotland, England as a whole, and 

 also Ireland is of so inferior a quality as hardly to fetch 

 a remunerative price. No doubt, however, this pine 

 will continue to be largely planted wherever shelter and 

 ornament are of first importance : and rightly so, for few 

 others are so well capable of withstanding cold, cutting 

 blasts at high altitudes. 



The_Douglaa_Fir (Pseudotsuga Douglasii) is, in certain 

 situations, a valuable timber-producing tree indeed, as 

 regards the actual production of timber in a given time, ij; 

 is, perhaps, ahead of any other tree grown in this country.^* ^ 

 Prom measurements we have taken, the actual production ^ 

 of timber during fifty years was 240 ft., or nearly SJjLj^r 

 year for half a century. In a plantation of the TFouglas fir 

 in Wales, planted twenty-two years, we found the average 

 dimensions to be as followsTTTeiight, 76 ft.; girth of stein 

 at 24 ft., 4 ft.; cubic contents, fully 50 ft. The timber 

 produced in this country is of excellent quality, being light 

 but strong, works very readily, has a pleasant yellowish 

 tinge, and takes on a good polish. That the Douglas fir is a 

 tree that is eminently adapted for cultivation in this country 

 is already fc well known; but to grow it in anything like a 

 satisfactory way it must be planted in sheltered hollows, for 

 extensive experience has long ago proved to us that it is ill- 

 adapted for braving the storm, and that even at but few feet 

 above the sea-level. Long ago we strongly advocated the 



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