66 DISTRIBUTION OF 



wood among them ; that is, if you wish to have any- 

 particular part of a plantation to be entirely an oak 

 forest ultimately, plant those in pits at eight feet 

 distance, and make up to the requisite thickness 

 with firs, generally Scots and larch, which are only 

 intended to act as nurses to the hard wood, and to 

 be cut down by degrees, in order to give the latter 

 room as they rise up and fill the ground. Where it 

 is intended to have a mixed hard-wood plantation, 

 distribute the different sorts in accordance with 

 taste, and make up to the desired distance, which 

 is generally about forty inches, with firs. 



Having planted all the better parts of a planta- 

 tion with hard Avood, as above mentioned, if there 

 be any thin heathy parts, which would not raise 

 such wood to advantage, occupy such parts en- 

 tirely with firs ; and in doing so observe that, if it 

 be considered that larch trees would grow to any- 

 useful size, but not so as to be relied upon for a 

 permanent crop upon the ground, then plant Scots 

 firs, say at seven feet apart, for a permanent stand- 

 ing crop, and nlake up to the desired thickness of 

 about three feet, with larches, which can be thin- 

 ned out as the Scots firs require to have room — and 

 in this manner the larch thinnings will come to pay 

 well; for, if the entire crop had been Scots firs, 

 little or no value could have been got from them by 

 the first thinning — the larch being always valuable 

 when young, while the Scots fir is not. 



