YOUNG TREES, ETC. 47 



growth of each species. Such a statement will, I am 

 persuaded, prove useful to proprietors, and also to 

 foresters who may not have had long experience ; 

 at least, it appears very evident to me, that such 

 knowledge is necessary to both proi3rietors and 

 foresters, and if acted upon, would be the means of 

 removing that very bad practice among arboricul- 

 turists, of planting all sorts of trees promiscuously 

 in any soil or situation. 



The Elm Tree {Ulmus campestris) is a native 

 of Britain, and is found growing naturally, or in a 

 wild state, in many parts of England. It is con- 

 sidered one of the finest and tallest of our European 

 timber trees for park scenery, and lives to a con- 

 siderable age. There are many elms in England 

 and Scotland which exceed two hundred years of 

 age; however, it appears to me, that the most 

 profitable age of the elm, as a timber tree, is 

 between sixty and seventy years — the wood of the 

 tree is then in its best condition, and after that age 

 it will not increase materially in the bulk of its 

 available timber. 



The quality of the wood of the elm depends 

 entirely upon the nature of the soil and situation 

 upon which it is grown. When grown in a low, 

 sheltered situation, and upon a heavy soil, the elm 

 attains its greatest bulk of timber ; but then the 

 wood of trees grown in such a condition is gene- 

 rally brittle, and is soon affected by rot; in fact, 



