

FORESTRY 



oak predominates, though ash is of first-class quality. The woods also contain a very large number 

 of ancient yew trees. 



The underwoods are cut at intervals of fourteen to eighteen years, when they are stored with 

 young saplings as thickly as circumstances permit. The underwood is partially sacrificed to allow 

 of a larger growth of stores, the best of which will be allowed to grow into timber, while the others 

 will be cut down when from twenty to forty years of age along with the underwood at the current 

 felling. At each cutting stores are left and the fall comprises timber, double stores (twenty to forty 

 years), single stores (fifteen to twenty years), and the undergrowth. 



There is a demand for pit-wood for the Forest of Dean coal mines near, but the sale of under- 

 wood is difficult to arrange unless included with timber and pitwood. 



The 167 acres of plantations consist of 1 1 acres over fifty years, 21 acres of twenty to fifty 

 years, 1 1 acres of ten to twenty years, and 124 acres under ten years ; those over ten years of age 

 are in all cases formed only of larch and Scots pine, while those below that are composed of mixed 

 hard and soft woods (oak, ash, Spanish chestnut, lime, elm, beech, larch, Scots pine, Douglas fir, 

 Austrian and Corsican pines, and spruce). Larch and spruce trees have been cut 90 feet in length, 

 and containing upwards of 50 cubic feet of timber. The park and private grounds contain a large 

 and fine variety of English and evergreen oak, ash, Pinus pondtrosa y English and wych elm, cedar, 

 and other trees. 1 Extensive planting of park trees has been done with selected standards of fifty 

 varieties of oak, also elms, poplars, and other park trees. 



The method of planting usually adopted is to select from 10 to 2O acres yearly, which are 

 cleared ready for holing. The holes are all dug by piece-work, 4 ft. apart, and left ready for the 

 forester and his men to fill. The plants are grown in the estate nursery, adjoining the forester's 

 house, 600 ft. above sea level. Seedlings are purchased from nurseries in Scotland, and are trans- 

 planted twice in the estate nursery before being lifted for final planting. Hardwoods are raised 

 from seed collected on the estate. 



When the nursery supply is not sufficient for the year's planting the deficiency is made up by 

 purchasing transplants from the north ; but plants from the estate nursery appear to establish them- 

 selves more easily, and to stand the exposed positions open to all winds better than the plants 

 purchased. The estate nursery has been established upwards of eight years, and is about 3 acres 

 in extent. One section is reserved for the growth of standards of hardwoods suitable for park 

 planting, the practice being to replace by new trees all windfalls and mature trees felled in the 

 park. 



Generally the estate is heavily timbered, especially in the south-west section ; and as it 

 contains a large proportion of poor hilly land, the revenue will ultimately be increased by the 

 planting now taking place. 



On the Lypiatt Park estate (Stroud) the property of the Right Hon. Sir John E. Dorington, 

 hart., the woodlands amount to about 330 acres of all ages up to about 200 years. About 

 III acres consist of beech (of 60, 80 and nearly 200 years of age) which attains maturity here at 

 about 1 2O to 140 years, about 60 acres of larch, about 80 acres of mixed larch and beech, the latter 

 forming an underwood that will be allowed to grow up into timber on the clearance of the larch 

 standards, about 25 acres of mixed hardwoods, about 20 acres of copsewoods, now an unprofitable 

 crop in this district, and some 36 acres of small miscellaneous woods and plantations. 



On the Hatherop Castle estate (Fairford), the property of G. S. Bazley, esq., the woodlands 

 extend to about 380 acres, out of a total area of about 5,800 acres. Of these, 80 acres are old copse- 

 woods of from 1 20 to 150 years of age, and consist principally of oak, of indifferent quality, 

 having a thin underwood of ash coppice cut with a rotation of about fifteen years ; while the remaining 

 300 acres are plantations formed between 1867 and 1900, which vary from two to thirty-three years 

 in age, and from a few perches to 60 acres in area, about 100 acres consisting of small clumps planted 

 either for shelter or to improve the landscape, or else to join together or extend older plantations. 

 These plantations are mixed, having been formed of beech, larch, Austrian pine, and spruce, with a fair 

 proportion of sycamore ash, Norway maple and birch, and a sprinkling of alder hornbeam, Corsican 

 pine, and other trees. On the whole, beech, larch, and spruce have done fairly well, but larch 

 planted within the last twelve years is very subject to disease (canker fungus). Sycamore, ash and 

 Norway maple have done well in most of the plantations, while birch and elder thrive in the most 

 exposed situations, with shallow and stony soil. 



The small clumps have been thinned regularly and rather heavily for effect. The larger plan- 

 tations have been left alone ; and where circumstances are sufficiently favourable, they are thick 

 enough to furnish well-grown timber. 



Until recently, the ground was trenched ( ' double dug ' ) before planting, this has given notice- 

 ably better results. Also in some cases, a crop of potatoes has been grown first, and the young trees 



1 We understand from the courteous information of Sir Charles Dilke, bart., that the ilex at Scdbury is 

 finer than at any other place in this county. He also reminds us that Sedbury is now famous as the birth- 

 place of the late Miss Ormerod, the first authority on destructive insects. 



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