244 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



bogs, where, by extending their roots, they had 

 drained the ground to a considerable distance 

 round them." " It is in vain," says Mr. Bou- 

 cher, " to plant the silver fir in hot, dry, or 

 rocky situations, where it commonly loses the 

 top shoots,andtheunder branches soon become 

 ragged. The largest and most flourishing trees 

 are seen on sour, heavy, obstinate clay ; and 

 though for ten or twelve years they do not 

 advance so fast as several other firs and pines, 

 yet in twenty they will outgrow them all. 

 They should not be too close, but require a 

 free circulation of air; whilst the Scotch fir, 

 which thrives in a different soil and situation, 

 prospers best when planted thick ; for it is 

 observed, that until the branches intermingle 

 and mutually support each other, the trees 

 never begin to advance with vigour. These 

 plantations generally require thinning from 

 about the tenth to the fourteenth year after 

 planting." 



The Dutch have made many a vain attempt 

 to make the fir grow at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, in order to find a supply of ship-masts, 

 which sell at a high price in India ; but in 

 England we can find a tree that will grow in 

 every soil we possess, and often to great ad- 

 vantage. In a little work entitled Practical 

 Economy, we are told that in the year 1758, 



