1802 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



old." Half of them may then be cut down, one half of the remaining 1000 at 

 25 years old, and the remaining 500 at from 30 to 35 years old. " To plant 

 nurses, therefore, is attended with very great pecuniary advantage. It will 

 not only return the whole expense laid out in making the plantation, but pro- 

 duce a very high rent for the land during the first 30 or 35 years ; whereas, 

 if oaks alone were planted, nothing could be gained during this period, ex- 

 cept by cutting them down when between 20 and 25 years old, for the sake 

 of their bark." (Pract. Plant., p. 225.) The most valuable part of this writer's 

 observations is what relates to the nature of the benefit to be derived from 

 the nurses in such a climate as that of Aberdeenshire; which is, by preventing 

 the first rays of the sun from suddenly thawing the frosts which have fallen 

 perpendicularly on the young oaks. " The deleterious effects of spring and 

 autumnal frosts arise chiefly from the leaves being subjected to a sudden 

 change of temperature, from the chills of the night to the strong rays of the 

 morning sun. When the thaw takes place gradually, the injury done is com- 

 paratively insignificant." (p. 222.) " If we wish, then, to preserve oaks from 

 frost, we can do nothing better than to shade them from the morning sun. 

 This we cannot do more effectually than by planting them, as above directed, 

 among trees that have already made some progress. By such management 

 the rays of the sun will not touch them till it has risen to a considerable 

 height above the horizon ; and thus time will be allowed for the frost to dis- 

 sipate, and the night dews to evaporate, by a slow and gradual process ; so 

 that the pernicious consequences arising to the young oaks from a sudden 

 change of temperature will be entirely prevented. It is not too much to say 

 that a plantation of young oaks, thus sheltered from the outset, will make 

 more progress in 5, than an unsheltered one will do in 10, years." These 

 observations may be considered as principally applicable to cold districts, 

 whether from elevation or latitude ; but they are also judicious even with 

 reference to plantations in the comparatively warm climate of the south of 

 England, as is evident by the practice of sheltering with Scotch pines in the 

 plantations made in the New Forest, where the oak is indigenous, and where 

 the soil is particularly well adapted to it. 



Cobbett would plant oaks in rows 25 ft. apart, and 25 ft. apart in the row ; 

 placing the plants of one row opposite the middle of the intervals between the 

 plants in the next row. Then, he says, " I would have four rows of hazel at 

 5 ft. apart, and at 5 ft. apart in the row, between every two rows of oaks ; and 

 four hazel plants between every two oaks in the row itself. The hazel would 

 rather, perhaps, outgrow the oaks ; but it would shelter them at the same time ; 

 and where the hazel interfered too much with the oaks, it might be cut away 

 with the hook. By the time that the hazel coppices were fit to cut for the first 

 time, the oaks would have attained a considerable height ; perhaps 8ft. or 10ft. 

 This would give them the mastership of the hazel ; and, after the second cut- 

 ting of the hazel, there would begin to be an oak wood, with a hazel coppice 

 beneath ; and in the meanwhile the coppice would have produced very nearly 

 as much as it would have produced if there had been no oaks growing among 

 it. By the time that four cuttings of the hazel would have taken place, the 

 coppice would be completely subdued by the oaks. It would produce no 

 more hoops or hurdles ; but then the oaks would be ready to afford a profit." 

 ( Woodlands, p. 434.) 



Mr. Yates, a planter who received a premium from the Society of Arts, 

 having fixed on a proper soil and situation for a plantation of oaks, trenches 

 strips of 3 ft. in width, and 30 ft. apart centre from centre, from 3 ft. to 6 ft. in 

 depth ; it being his opinion that the oak derives its chief nutriment and strength 

 from the taproot. The intermediate space between the trenches may either be 

 employed for the growth of sheltering trees, pines or firs, or for hazel, or other 

 underwood, or kept in grass. A row of acorns, 2 in. apart, is dibbled in along 

 the centre of each trench ; the plants produced by which are thinned out in the 

 autumn of the year in which they come up, and every year afterwards, till they 

 stand at 30 ft. apart. Pruning goes on every year, by removing, " close to the 



