1800 ARBORETUM AND FltUTlCETUM. PART III. 



cated." (Matthew on Naval Timber, p. 38.) The experience of Mr. Matthew 

 agrees with that of Mr. Webster (Gard. Mag., vol. xii. p. 368.), and is, indeed, 

 consonant to reason. Several planters of experience have stated to us, that 

 they have found oaks of ten or twelve years' growth, taken up without any 

 preparation, and the heads closely cut in when transplanted, succeed much 

 better than oaks one, two, or three years from the seed bed, or even smaller 

 transplanted trees, in the same soil and situation. Alexander Milne, Esq., 

 one of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, informs us that this 

 was the case several years ago, when a number of oaks, from 15 ft. to 20 ft. in 

 height, were thinned out of a government plantation in the Forest of Dean, 

 closely cut in at root and top, and planted in the open common or forest, 

 being only guarded from cattle by a few thorn bushes tied round their steins. 

 The late Sir Uvedale Price was equally successful in transplanting oaks in 

 this manner, at Foxley. 



Artificial Shelter, it is allowed by almost all writers on the culture of the oak, 

 is essentially necessary to insure the rapid progress of a young plantation. 

 This arises from the natural tenderness of the young shoots and early leaves 

 of the oak, which, even in the south of England, are frequently destroyed or 

 much injured by frost in May ; while, in elevated situations, it is found that 

 even .the bark does not so easily separate from the wood of standing trees 

 after'a cold night. Modern planters seem to be all agreed, that the best mode 

 of producing shelter for the oak is, by first covering the surface with Scotch 

 pine, larch, or birch ; the first being greatly preferred. After the nurse trees 

 have grown to the height of 4 ft. or 5 ft., openings should be cut in the plant- 

 ations thus formed, at the rate of from 300 to 500 according to some, and of 

 60 to 100 according to others, to the acre ; and in each of these openings an 

 acorn, or an oak plant should be inserted, the soil having been duly pre- 

 pared. This practice seems to have originated at Welbeck, in Nottingham- 

 shire, in the plantations made by the Duke of Portland, and to have been 

 first described by Speechly in Hunter's edition of Evelyn's Sylva ; but it 

 has since been recommended by Pontey, in his Profitable Planter (4th. ed., 

 p. 213.); by Sang, in his edition of Nicol's Planter's Kalendar (p. 294.); by 

 Billington, in his Series of Facts, &c.; by Cruickshanks, in his Practical Planter; 

 by Davis, in communications to the Bath and West of England Society; and 

 by various others. It has also been extensively employed in the government 

 plantations in the New Forest, Hampshire, under the care of Mr. Robert 

 Turner, who, in 1819, was deputy surveyor of the New Forest; and to whom 

 the merit is due of having first applied this method systematically, and shown 

 the superiority of the Scotch pine, as a nurse plant for the oak, to all other 

 trees. The poplar is universally rejected as a nurse for the oak, on account 

 of the rapidity of its growth, and the very short period that elapses before it 

 fills both soil and subsoil with its roots ; and either covers the surface with its 

 branches, or, if these are pruned off, raises its head to such a great height, that 

 no plant of slower growth than itself can thrive near it. The elm, from the 

 rapidity of its growth, is almost as objectionable as the poplar ; and the same 

 may be said of the willow. The pine and fir tribe supplies by far the best nurses 

 for the oak, and, indeed, for all other hard-wooded timber trees ; not only 

 producing the most effective shelter, but the most profit when cut down. The 

 Scotch pine and the spruce fir are preferable to any other pines or firs, and 

 to the larch, because they are hardier, and grow more erect ; whereas the 

 pinaster and the maritime pine, though they will both stand the sea breeze, 

 and the larch, though it grows with great rapidity even on barren soils and 

 on mountains, almost always lean over to one side. 



Speechly, in the extensive oak plantations made for the Duke of Portland 

 in Nottinghamshire, on the exposed hills of what was formerly Sherwood 

 Forest, found the birch the most suitable tree for shelter ; chiefly, we believe, 

 because it springs up every where naturally in that part of the country, and 

 seems to thrive in the light sandy surface soil there better than any other tree. 

 Mr. Speechly also found that sowing the poorer parts of the hills with furze was 



