1808 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART 111. 



among them. Under their protection, oak saplings, which delight in sheltered 

 places, would thrive exceedingly ; be safe from the browzing of cattle, without 

 the expense of fencing; and the lawns would become wooded with stately 

 timber. When oaks are planted in groups, one or other often gains the mas- 

 tery, or forces the rest to bend forward till they have room for ascent. Trees 

 in groups, when few in number, enjoy a liberty nearly equal to single ones : 

 each tree has a space where its roots may draw nutrition ; and, as these and 

 the branches usually follow the same direction, the leading roots of the exte- 

 rior trees will tend outwards ; and, finding nothing to obstruct their passage, 

 will furnish supply sufficient to'keep their trunks thriving, notwithstanding 

 superiority of their antagonists. Hence it is manifest, that any quick-growing 

 trees of small value may be used as instruments for forcing seedling oaks out 

 of their upright line. Cuttings of coppice withy (<Salix caprea) will, by the 

 freedom of their growth, overpower the saplings, bearing them down almost 

 to the ground for a time ; and, the purpose being effected, may, for relief of the 

 oaks, be cut down as often as requisite; till, as the oaks gain power, the withies, 

 in their turn, give way. Plants like these, which extract nutrition of a dif- 

 ferent nature, though they promote a crook, will not starve or check the oaks 

 beneath them. Trees growing out of a bank frequently take a favourable 

 turn : such are accepted by the king's purveyors as compass pieces, which 

 gain admission into the dockyards, though of less dimensions, and at a higher 

 .price than straighter timber. It may be proper, therefore, in new enclosures, 

 to throw up the banks high and broad ; to plant quicksets on the outer slopes, 

 and on the tops withies ; and, at due distances near the base of the inner 

 slopes, to dib in acorns, which in their future growth must incline forwards, 

 to avoid the projecting withies, and be some years before they can attempt a 

 perpendicular growth. In such cases the crook will be near the but end, in 

 the stoutest part of the timber, and the curve, thus formed in infancy, will 

 retain its shape as long as the tree endures." (Ibid., p. 59.) 



Marshall has the following judicious observations on this subject : "In 

 forests and other wastes, whether public or appropriated, especially where the 

 soil is of a deep clayey nature, oaks will rise spontaneously from seeds that 

 happen to be dropped, if the seedling plants should be in situations where they 

 are defended by underwood or rough bushes from the bite of pasturing ani- 

 mals ; and some few of the plants thus fortuitously raised may chance to take 

 the form desired by the ship carpenter; but this is all mere matter of accident. 

 By freeing the stems of young trees from side shoots, and by keeping their 

 leaders single, a length of stem is with certainty obtained ; and, by afterwards 

 checking their right growth, and throwing the main strength of the head into 

 one principal bough (by checking, not removing, the rest), a crookedness of 

 timber is with the same certainty produced ; and, what is equally necessary in 

 ship timber, a cleanness and evenness of contexture results at the same time. 

 The dangerous, and too often, we fear, fatal, defect caused by the decayed 

 trunks of dead stem boughs being overgrown and hidden under a shell of sound 

 timber (a defect which every fortuitous tree is liable to) is, by this provident 

 treatment, avoided : the timber, from the pith to the sap, becoming uniformly 

 sound, and of equal strength and durability." (Pl.andRur. Or., vol. i. p. 141.) 



Billington produced crooked timber, in His Majesty's wood at Chopwell, in 

 Durham, by fastening oak trees, that were not too strong to be hurt in bending, 

 to larch trees, and keeping them " in a bent position for about two years.'* 

 He tied the oaks to the larches with twisted withs, tarred twine, or matting ; 

 but, as he does not inform us in what state the trees were eight or ten years 

 after having been subjected to this operation, his experiment may be considered 

 as having been only commenced. He gives directions, illustrated by wood- 

 cuts, for pruning off the smaller branches from the larger ones, so as to leave 

 the head of the tree with only three or four large arms, instead of a multitude 

 of branches ; and this operation, if commenced in time, and the side branches 

 cut off when not above 1 in. in diameter, promises to be of use. We have 

 heard nothing of these trees since, finding, on enquiry at the Office of Woods 



