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in a high and exposed situation, no hard-wood 

 tree is more worthy of a place. I have seen the 

 heech grow well upon a soil and situation where 

 almost no other tree could have existed, not even 

 the Scots fir. In a high-lying dry situation, with 

 a free circulation of air, the beech lives to its 

 greatest attainable age ; and in a low situation, 

 with a rather humid atmosphere, the tree reaches 

 its greatest size ; but in such a state it generally 

 dies quickly after attaining full size. 



The circumstances wliich appear most favourable 

 to the healthy development of the beech are a dry 

 and rather light soil, with a considerable proportion 

 of lime or chalk. 



I have often had occasion to remark healthy beech 

 plantations in all sorts of soils, from a stiif clay to a 

 light sand ; and, in my opinion, this accommodating 

 nature of the tree is the reason why we so often 

 see at the present day so many old beech trees 

 about the seats of proprietors in Scotland. 



The Ash Tree {Fraxinus excelsior) is a native 

 of Britain, and a well-known tree. It is considered 

 one of the most useful of all our hard-wood trees 

 for general country purposes, and is much sought 

 after by carpenters and coach-builders. A peculiar 

 characteristic of this tree is, that the quality of the 

 wood is always the better from being rapidly grown, 

 the opposite of which is the case with most other 

 trees. On very poor soils, where the ash grows 



