268 now to ghow good timber. 



cisecl in planting which should result, if not in 

 profit, at least in providing ornament without loss, 

 either to the tenant on the one hand, or the pro- 

 prietor on the other. To this end we would advocate 

 setting apart portions of the estate for the cultiva- 

 tion of timber in belt plantations, or even in woods, 

 having reference to the nature of the soil and general 

 position, and this in preference to hedge-row plant- 

 ing, as long lines of ash or elm can never look 

 ornamental however well-grown; but, inasmuch as 

 this mode of growth necessitates lopping, the timber 

 is so long in growing and then is never good, that it 

 seldom pays even the expenses attendant upon its 

 utilization. 



In plantations, again, you can adopt such a sys- 

 tem of growing nurses that some return for the out- 

 lay will not be many years in commencing, and so 

 profit by way of rent is not delayed as in hedge-row 

 growth.* 



In order to understand what we would call a forest 

 nurse, let us suppose that in a certain position our 

 object is to grow a plantation of oak : we might in 

 this case mix beech, elm, larch, Scotch firs, and 

 spruce with the oak; these, by growing together, 

 would increase an upward development ; they would 

 " pull each other up," as usually expressed. Soon 

 this lateral growth would cause them to approach 

 each other too closelv, and then the larch would 



* We are aware that the landlord too often considers hedge-row 

 timber as costless; but the injury which it entails upon the farm, and 

 its nearly useless character, leads us to view the matter in a different 

 light. 



