SCOTCH FIR. 327 



lowland tracts, when the soil is sandy, and neither stagnant 

 waters, nor yet streamlets oozing from the ground, intrude 

 upon our habitats. Take for instance the fir-wood of 

 Crooksbury Heath in Surrey, including twelve acres in the 

 midst of a wide unprofitable waste. Carts were seen one 

 morning, coming across the common, filled with Scotch firs 

 about four years old, and these, being carefully removed, 

 were planted at the distance of four feet apart without any 

 preparation of the ground. The plants attained the height 

 of fourteen feet in twelve years, and, being thinned, pro- 

 duced eight pounds per acre : the thinnings were sold for 

 hop-poles, and the branches made into bavins for burning 

 lime. This done, the trees were left unmolested for another 

 six years, when, having grown to the height of forty feet, 

 a second thinning took place, and fine growing firs fell 

 before the hatchet of the woodman, and were turned into 

 scantlings and rafters. Upwards of eighteen thousand 

 still remained upon the twelve acres, and their value 

 was estimated at five hundred and seventy-three pounds. 



