General Notices. 275 



appearance of late in this once favorite exotic timber tree, neutralizes the 

 advantages arising from the marketability of its poles. The deodar, on the 

 contrary, is extolled as combining the rapid growth and graceful form of 

 the larch with the evergreen habit of the Scotch pine. It is therefore hoped 

 that it will furnish our planters with an excellent nurse for their oaks, while 

 a host of Indian travellers are cited to prove the excellence of its timber. 



We confess to having great doubts, founded on extensive observation, 

 respecting the policy of mixing any of the conifers with the oak as nurses, 

 where the production of large timber is the object in view, whatever advan- 

 tages may be derived from the nursing system, when rapid growth and pic- 

 torial effect are to be produced in ornamental planting. 



We believe that the British oak has not degenerated since the time when 

 it sprang up spontaneously in our forests, unprotected except by the holly 

 in its earlier stages, and in more advanced growth by deciduous trees like 

 itself. In those parts of the New Forest whicli are of natural growth, the 

 beech is the constant companion of tlie finest oaks. The same association 

 has been noticed by Shelley, in the " Forest of Windsor": 



" Tlie oak, 

 Extending ils immense and knolty arms, 

 Embraces ih« lighi beech." 



The beech affords shelter enough, and not too mucli. It springs up like 

 a weed ; and all that is required is that it should be watched, lest from its 

 more rapid growth it should overpower the oak. 



One reason of the difficulty now experienced in raising oak in situations 

 where we have evidence in our bogs of the former existence of the finest 

 timber, arises from the smallness of the scale on which plantations are made. 

 In the modern plantations of the New Forest, as well as in those natural 

 masses of wood that have grown up spontaneously, the cutting effects of 

 the blast do not extend more than a few yards from the outskirts. The 

 larch likewise has been raised in far more elevated and exposed situations, 

 on the mountains of Blair Athol, simply by planting in large masses. These, 

 then, appear to be the secrets of successful planting — to plant in large mass- 

 es, to plant thickly, and to thin in good time, thinning moderately and regu- 

 larly. If conifers are to be planted to break the force of prevailing winds, 

 it is better that they should form separate belts than that they should be 

 intermixed with the oaks. 



The question whether the oak should be transplanted or raised from the 

 acorn where it is to grow, depends very much on the purposes for which it 

 is raised. In the early stages of growth, perhaps transplanted oaks may do 

 the best, and may yield as good small timber as the untransplanted sap- 

 lings, and much trouble and disappointment may be avoided in the outset 

 arising from the ravages of rooks and various kinds of vermin. But the 

 superiority of an old " rook-planted" oak is well known to tlie woodmen ; 

 and if naval timber is worth growing, it is surely worth a little extra trouble 

 and expense in its infancy. 



We do not enter on the questions whether it is better, in the present 



