BOOK III. FORMATION OF A TREE-NURSERY. 973 



required for any length or height, can be easily screwed into each other. The other small 

 rods for taking the length of the tree, as also of its branches, are only five eighths of an 

 inch in diameter : each rod is three feet long, and goes together with connecting screws 

 of brass. The rods are painted black, and divided into feet and inches, with white let- 

 ters ; so that by connecting any number of the rods together that may be required, and by 

 applying them to the tree or branches (&), you can take the exact length in a speedy, ac- 

 curate, and simple manner. (Forester's Guide, 207. ) 



6971. The value of the invention turns on the use of the wheel, in taking the girth of the tree. Thus, 

 " after having taken the length of the tree in feet and inches, which length may be taken by the rods as 

 already described, the girth is most generally taken at half the length, which girth we are enabled to take 

 with the measuring wheel : this is easily done, by putting up the wheel, with as many of the connecting 

 rods together as will put it up to the height required ; then, suppose there are no branches in the way, and 

 having before made a mark on the bark of the tree with the small rods, the uppermost one having a small 

 marking-iron in its end for that purpose ; this mark is made where the girth is to be taken, and from where 

 you are to take your departure with the wheel, which being done, press the wheel round the tree, following 

 it, and keeping it as level as possible, which the wheel will in a great measure do of itself, by its having 

 teeth like a saw in the hem of the wheel, unless carelessly attended to. As the wheel goes round the tree, 

 be sure to count the number of times the bell strikes, which it does at every foot ; and when you see you 

 have not another twelve inches or one foot more to run, to arrive at the place where you took your depar- 

 ture from, count the number of inches that it strikes over and above the last foot, and thus you will at once 

 have the feet and inches that the tree is in circumference; of which take the fourth, and this gives you 

 the side of the square : but when there are branches in the way of getting round the tree, you must have 

 a spare handle for the machine (e, h], about two feet, or two feet six inches in length, and by altering the 

 swivel-joint at the top of the first rod to any position required, the person working the wheel by the rods 

 can stand in the same place, and put the wheel, say half way round the tree, if ic is very large, and by 

 turning the swivel-joint, and reversing the wheel, at the same time sending it round the other side of the 

 tree till it meet where it left off, and by counting the feet and inches as above, and adding the two together, 

 you will at once have the extreme girth of the tree. When branches are to measure, or when branches are 

 in the way of getting round the tree with the rods, the person with the small rods stands on the opposite 

 side of the tree, and directs the person when to stop with the wheel. Thus, by a little practice in working 

 the wheel, and paying attention to count the feet and inches as they strike, two men will measure growing 

 or standing trees equally as accurately and expeditiously as if the trees were lying on the ground. In 

 taking the girth with a line, you have "first to put it round the tree, then you double it, and apply it to a 

 foot-rule ; you then take the half for the side of the square, whereas this machine gives you the exact feet 

 and inches from the top of the highest tree, without the help of any other rule." (Forester's Guide, 208.) 

 Neither this machine, nor a mechanical dendrometer, invented about twenty years ago, though both of 

 considerable merit, appear to us so well calculated for general use as the Timber Measurer of Broad, (fig. 154.) 



6972. The books of accounts for trees and plantations have already been mentioned. 

 (2340.) Some have proposed measuring the whole of, or at least all the detached and 

 hedge-row trees on an estate periodically ; numbering each tree, and keeping a corre- 

 sponding register, by which the proprietor, when at a distance, might give directions for 

 cutting down particular trees, &c. ; but this appears rather too much in the mercantile 

 style for the dignified enjoyment of landed property, and does not promise any very great 

 advantages. 



CHAP. VII. 



Of the Formation of a Nursery- Garden for the Propagation and Hearing of Trees and 



Shrubs. 



6973. Nurseries for rearing trees are commonly left to commercial gardeners, as the 

 plantations of few private landowners are so extensive, or continued through a suf- 

 ficient number of years to render it worth their while to originate and nurse up their 

 own tree and hedge plants. Exceptions, however, occur in the case of remote situ- 

 ations, and where there are tracts so extensive as to require many years in planting. Be 

 sides, as Sang observes, " some are of opinion, that trees, in order to their being rendered 

 sufficiently hardy, should be reared on the soil and situation where they are ulti- 

 mately to be planted ; and if the design be extensive, and such as may require many 

 years for its completion ; a conveniently situated nursery is, in that case, highly de- 

 sirable, not only as saving the carriage of plants, and facilitating the business of trans- 

 planting, but as increasing the chance of success, on account of the plants remaining a 

 much shorter time out of the ground than if brought from a distance. If the situation, 

 however, ultimately destined for the trees be cold, high, and bleak, and the soil of course 

 various, some good, and much of it bad, or of an indifferent quality, there it would by 

 no means be advisable to attempt the establishment of a nursery, and especially a nur- 

 sery to raise plants from seeds. The chief properties of nursery plants intended for 

 transplanting, consist in their strength and cleanness of stem, and in their roots having 

 a multiplicity of healthy fibres ; and in order to obtain plants possessing these qualities, 

 it is necessary to sow, and plant out to nurse, if not in rich, at least in mellow earth, 

 and in a moderately sheltered situation." (Plant. Kal. 20.) The following directions 

 by Sang as to the soil, shelter, aspect, and fencing of a nursery -garden are equally ap- 

 plicable to such as are intended for private or commercial purposes : 



6974. In order to have a complete nursery, it should contain soils of various qualities, and not less than 

 eighteen inches or two feet deep; the generality of it should be light friable earth j a part of it should be 



