FORESTS AND GROVES. 3 I 



until the principals be fairly eftablifhed, and have 

 grown to the height of ten or twelve feet. The 

 nurfes fhould be indifcriminately mixed, over the 

 whole plantation, in the proportion of at lead 

 two to one. Some fituations may require three, 

 or even four nurfes to each principal, according 

 to the expofed or flickered nature of the fituation, 

 or the quality of the foil. We hold it as the 

 worfl of management, in expofed fituations, to 

 plant thin, or to plant few nurfes. It is, however, 

 very difficult to fix upon the exacl; diftances at 

 which the whole fhould (land ; but the extremes 

 may be fixed, at thirty inches for the leaft, and 

 four feet fix inches for the greateft diftance ; or, 

 in fome few inftances, in very favourable fitua- 

 tions, at fix feet. 



In regard to the fize of plants, for the above 

 purpofe, a confiderable latitude may be taken, 

 provided always that the largeft do not exceed 

 eighteen inches in height ; and even fuch a height 

 is only to be allowed in the cafe of elders, moun- 

 tain-am, fycamores, and fuch hard-wooded plants 

 as are afterwards to be introduced for the princi- 

 pal crop. The larch nurfes fhould not be older 

 than one-year feedlings which have been one year 

 nurfed in good ground. By that time they will 

 be from fix to nine inches high, which is the beft 

 poflible fize ; and if they have been nurfed in foft 

 rich earth, their roots will abound with fine fibres. 



As 



