788 
THE GARDENERS' 
CHRONICLE. 
i Nov. 28, 
latter is certainly the natural habitat of the plant. These 
instances are sufficient to show that by a little study 
there is no difficulty in selecting and adapting the proper 
sorts of our more useful timber trees, to different and 
suitable soils and situations. 
2d: Distance, plant from plant.—The second error 
committed in planting, and it is even greater than the 
first, and quite as universally adopted, is, furnishing the 
ground with at least four or five times as many plants 
as it is able to support. This practice displays a greater 
want of correct information than the former, and they 
generally go together, which only augments the evil. 
It is not a little surprising that this error has not been 
abandoned long ago, when it is considered that it affects 
so-materially the proprietor’s purse, an appendage 
which, when touched, almost every person feels so sen- 
sitively. Various are the reasons assigned, and the 
excuses made, for the practice of this worse than use- 
lese expenditure of money. 
One of the most frequent is, that the situation is ex- 
posed, and the trees must be thickly planted, to afford 
shelter to one another, that they may get quickly up. 
A little consideration will show the futility of this rea- 
soning. At what stage of its existence does a tree or 
any other plant most require shelter ? surely if it needs 
it fat all, it is when young. Then if trees 16 or 18 
inches high are planted at any distance from 2 to 6 or 
10 ft. apart, it is obvious they can afford no shelter to 
each other until they have grown 4, 5, or 6 years, and 
then in place of protecting one another, the work of de- 
struction commences, the more robust and faster grow- 
ing overtop and smother the weaker and slower grow- 
ing plants, and all are less or more injured in their 
constitutions, for thinning at that early age is very sel- 
dom resorted to ; the trees being of no value, they are 
are allowed to stand until the thinnings will at least pay 
the expense of taking them out, by which time the 
plantation is unfit to be thinned. The trees have at- 
tained an unnatural height, the lower branches are in a 
decayed or sickly state from want of light, air, and 
moisture ; the bark is thin and the sap vessels small 
and attenuated from want of sufficient nourishment, 
and from existing in an artificial climate several degrees 
higher in temperature than the natural one. If this is 
the case, and no one will deny that it too generally is 
80, it is quite apparent that the admission, by thinning, 
of a current of cold air, must have the effect of shri- 
velling the bark, contracting the sap-vessels, loosening 
the weakened roots from the exhausted soil, and thereby 
killing many, and checking the growth of all, except 
those which have been fortunate enough to have got an 
outside berth, and are prepared to weather the storm. 
The natural consequence is, that the trees are stinted 
in their growth, they become diseased, and do not, with 
all the care that can afterwards be bestowed upon 
them, live half the term of their naturai lives, and the 
timber is also inferior in quality. 
It is well known to every one at all acquainted with 
the subject, that the part of a tree most susceptible of 
injury from cold is the top or leading shoot, and it is 
uite obvious that, however closely they may be planted, 
this part of the tree must always be exposed to every 
vicissitude of climate. The remedy for this is very 
plain; instead of planting at 2 to 4 feet, the usual dis- 
tance, plant at 6 to 8 feet apart if Firs, and if hard- 
wood for the permanent crop, plant them at least 28 
feet distant from each other, and fill in Firs, Larch, 
Spruce, or Scotch Firs, according to soil and situation, 
ior nurses, till all stand at 6 to 8 feet apart. 
Hardwood is of little or no value until it has arrived 
at some age, and has attained to considerable di- 
mensions ; while Larch and Spruce can be applied to use- 
ful purposes at any age after 10 or 12 years. The 
saving of plants and labour, and, consequently, money, 
at the outset, is not a trifle. At 7 feet apart it requires 
only 889 plants for an acre, imperial measure ; at 3 
feet apart it requires no less than 4840—more than 
5 times the number ; but this is only a small portion of 
the amount ultimately to be saved. 
At the distance of 7 feet apart, the medium between 
6 and 8 feet, the trees will stand in ordinary soils and 
situations for nine or ten years without requiring thin- 
ning, and without doing any injury to each other. The 
soil, too, will be not only unexhausted, but, from the 
annual decay of the herbage uponit, will bereceiving fresh 
acquisitions of fertility, and the trees being surrounded 
with a pure pk and the unob d rays of the 
sun, in place of the polluted air in the other case, arising 
from the dead and decaying portions of their own 
species, will make much more rapid growth, and be 
much more robust in their constitution. 
3d: Thinning.—Thinning will then commence, namely 
in nine or ten years, with the nurses standing next to 
the hardwood trees, which should be set quite clear, 
that they may receive without interruption, light, air, 
and moisture, which it is: well known are the only 
elements by which plants subsist, the soil being only a 
medium through which is communicated to them that 
Portion of their nourishment which they receive from 
their roots. This being the case, how apparent is the 
propriety of planting thin, and keeping thin, for pro- 
ducing large trees and timber of good quality, to say 
nothing of the primary saving and ultimate profit. 
Is is not a little amusing to observe the expedients 
resorted to to remedy the evil of close planting, and to 
put off till a more convenient season the very necessary 
operation of thinning, which, if done in time, is the 
enly effectual remedy. One of these shifts, and a most 
absurd one it is, is cutting off the whole of the lower 
branches, leaving only a few of the upper ones to form 
a small top, as if Nature had committed a great error 
in furnishing the plants with a superfiuity of resources 
by which to draw to them that nourishment necessary 
for their existence. This is a very gross error when prac- 
tised even on hardwood trees, as it must of necessity 
retard their growth, ‘and cause them to make unneces- 
sary efforts to restore what they have lost by pushing 
out shoots from their stems near the parts where the 
branches were attached to. This of itself is sufficient 
to teach any reflecting person that the practice is 
wrong. But when adopted on resinous plants, such as 
the Fir tribe (and the practice in many parts of the 
country is very common), it is most destructive, as they 
are deprived by Nature of the means of restoration, and 
hence the wounds remain unhealed for many years, and 
in many cases as long as the plants survive; showing 
that Nature has strictly forbidden the approach of the 
knife to them. There is obviously no remedy for close 
planting but early and timely thinning ; and a good, 
safe, and simple general rule is to leave every plant 
standing clear of its neighbours, and this rule is ap- 
plicable to plantations of every kind, and in every stage 
of their progress, 
4th: Pruning.—Pruning is an operation which by 
some is carried too far, and by others entirely neglected. 
When substituted in place of thinning, it is carried to 
an injurious and unprofitable extent, as has been already 
remarked, and when neglected altogether, many trees 
will only assume the habit of shrubs, It can only be 
practised with propriety and advantage on hardwood 
trees, and should be done at an early stage. Little or 
no pruning should ever be necessary in a plantation 
after 15 years’ growth. In performing this operation, 
attention should be paid to the natural habit or form of 
the tree, and thus to assist but not to thwart Nature. 
It is absurd to attempt to make an Oak, or any other 
round-headed tree, assume the habit of an erect growing 
plant such as the Lombardy Poplar. It is therefore 
difficult to lay down a general rule, and much must de- 
pend on the judgment of the operator. It may be 
remarked, however, that all trees intended to grow to 
timber should be set off with one stem. This should be 
attended to at the time of planting ; afterwards they 
should be looked over periodically, and every rival to 
the top or leading shoot should be cut off, and any side 
Shoot or branch acquiring greater strength than the 
stem itself, and drawing away from it an undue propor- 
tion of sap, should also be taken away. A few of the 
lower branches may be cut off as the trees advance, but 
this must be done with caution. If this is properly 
attended to, and judieiously done when the plants are 
young, and it can almost all be done with the common 
pruning-knife, and at a mere trifle of expense, the trees 
in general and under ordinary circumstances will have 
attained sufficient length of stem in 15 years, and may 
be allowed to form their heads in their natural way. 
t is presumed that these remarks sufficiently prove 
the propriety and advantage of properly adapting trees 
to the soil and climate ; planting thin, or, in other words, 
not over-cropping the land ; early and timely thinning 
and judicious pruning. And when compared with the 
prevailing practice of indiscriminate selection and close 
planting, it is ,obvious that the great obstacle to the 
more extensive planting of waste lands in Great 
Britain and Ireland, of which there is an immense 
extent altogether inapplicable to any other useful pur- 
pose is removed, inasmuch as the first outlay (with the 
exception of inclosing and draining) and future manage- 
ment is greatly reduced, and the success and ultimate 
profit rendered certain.—James Young, Land and 
Wood Surveyor, Perth, Nov. 16. 
Home Correspondence. 
Polmaise Heating.—A fortnight since, Mr. Meek pub- 
lished my total failure in an attempt to heat a house by the 
Polmaise system. But tome failure never was defeat ; 
it only told me that I was on the wrong side of the 
question, and bade me mend my practice. I have now 
e pleasure of mentioning my perfect success, 
Thoroughly convinced of the soundness of the principle, 
I had watched the progress of Polmaise, and studied 
each contending article for and against the system ; 
fully determined to test it as soon as opportunity offered. 
But I wanted Polmaise to be simple, effectual, and, 
above all, economical ;—not a thing to look at, but to 
work, A man might spare, and wouid willingly expend 
five pounds for his hobby, when he could not by any 
possibility spare twenty or thirty. Such a thing 
wanted, and unless such a thing could be obtained by 
Polmaise, it would make but slow progress. The Air 
King would still have bowed his head to the Water King, 
King Stork to King Log. attempted such a thing, and 
most signally failed. The principle I had adopted was 
right, I had applied 9-10ths of Nature's laws, but forgot 
the odd one. In my dilemma I paid a visit to Mr. 
Meek ; Isaw all that he has asserted in operation, and 
bear most willing testimony to his assertions. I saw 
m 
viz., that of giving my drains a descent, from the pecu- 
liar position of the house. I found that I must either 
make the cold air ascend, or give up Polmaise. I did 
not like the idea of expending 407. or 507. upon hot 
water, when 4/., which was the utmost I had expended, 
would answer the same purpose, could I but make it 
work. I have done so, and it works admirably ; and 
if you think that an expenditure of 4/. to heat a house 
sufficient to protect it from the frost of winter, of 50 
feet long, 22 feet wide, 12 feet high, and span roofed, 
the upright sashes glazed to within 8 inches of the ground, 
is worth publishing, I will send the plan with further 
particulars. In the meantime the house itself is open 
to the inspection of any one, Sundays excepted.— Alfred 
Kendall, Queen Elizabeth’s Walk, Church-street, Stoke 
Newington. [Pray let us have the plan. ive you 
great eredit for your skilful application of Natural 
Philosophy.] 
Jerusalem Artichoke, a substitute for the Potato.— 
With regard to the paragraph (p. 773), signed “James 
Wellman, Reading," I beg to offer the following explana- 
tion, not only to satisfy your correspondent, but private 
friends who have addressed me, and who are evidently 
labouring under the same mistake as to the nature and 
value of this important plant. This plant is said to be 
a native of Brazil, and if so, the native country of the 
Potato, namely Peru, is situated on the same parallel of 
latitude. Now, although our summers in England are 
long enough and warm enough to bring even two crops 
of Potatoes to perfection, the summer of 1846, which 
has been one of the longest and warmest, was not able 
to bring the Jerusalem Artichoke even into flower in 
Staffordshire ; for, the plants showed flower-buds, but 
were cut down by frost before they could open a petal. 
It is, therefore, unreasonable to talk of bringing either 
the root or the stem of this exotic to perfection, and 
equally so to speak of a plant ripening that has not 
even flowered. But to render my meaning clearer,— 
suppose the farmer were to have his crop of Potatoes 
frosted just before the flowers opened, would not every 
practical man allow that the root crop or tubers were a 
very long way from perfection, and that the haulm had’ 
not been ripe. Now this consideration will not only 
show the true state of the Jerusalem Artichoke crop in 
this country every year, but will also suggest the very 
valuable consideration of how this defect is to be 
remedied by early planting, and by exciting manures, 
raised beds, or by forwarding the plants in 
spring, and planting them out in the same 
manner that Indian Corn is planted out after 
being grown under shelter so as to give it a longer 
summer than could otherwise be calculated upon. It 
will therefore take some time and pains, and perhaps no 
small'amount of horticultural skill, to bring either root 
orstem of this plant to ripeness or perfection in our 
climate ; but it is well worth striving for, and no doubt. 
will ultimately be attained. Ordinary tubers of this 
plant are of an irregular spheroid or spindle shape,-but 
from ining numberless speci I find that those. 
which I have been able to bring nearest to perfection 
are irregularly globular, and the pouting and prominent 
eyes become nearly even with the general surface of the 
tuber; and moreover tubers of this shape are less soapy 
or squashy than the spindle-shaped ones. I am, there- 
fore, of opinion that the normal form of this tuber is 
globular. Now for the stems ; and on this head I beg 
to remark that this plant, like the Potato, propagates its 
species by two sets of organs, namely by tubers and by 
seeds ; it is, therefore, evident that this plant elaborates 
by its leaves and green stems juices for these two func- 
tions of bearing and tub: g. The juices for 
seed bearing are laid up in the hollow stem above the 
collar of the plant, and are green coloured and of a 
pleasant taste; hence it happens that when this plant 
is ill used either for want of food or crowded, and con- 
sequently choked for want of air, &c., its stems 
are hollow for nearly all their length, and the 
stalk is only a long single rod; but when the 
plant is well grown it has a conical and yery sym- 
metrical form, with a regularly branched head, and 
thus grown in a favourable season its stem is no 
longer hollow, but well stored with rich food, a beauti- 
ful provision of Nature to enable the plant to perfect the 
heavy bulk of seeds which it would produce in a sunny 
clime. It is a well known fact that the ball of a Tur- 
nip becomes exhausted of its store of sap as the flower- 
stem rises; being propagated only by seeds, the plant 
had only one set of functions to perform, namely, the 
seed-bearing. Not so with the Jerusalem Artichoke 
and the Potato plant ; they have each two sets of func- 
tions, namely a tuber-forming as well as a seed-bearing 
set, and hence it is that the grand difference arises in 
the management of the stems of such plants as Jeru- 
salem Artichokes and Potatoes ; for however large the 
tubers might be of Jerusalem Artichokes or of Potatoes, 
there never would or could pass one grain of their stored 
juices above the collar of the plant to aid the seed-bear- 
ing d t, and on the other hand the seed-bearin 
more than he asserte i ; I saw a house the p 
of which was heated to nearly summer heat, yet so con- 
genial that I was bustling in it for upwards of two 
hours, the major part of the time with my great coat on, 
yet (as a jockey would say) “never sweat a hair !” 
examined everything, for, thanks to the eourtesy of Mr. 
Meek, he showed me everything, and explained every- 
thing. Ifound that my principle was the same, though 
the details were different ; I returned, but could not, 
for a time, detect my error. On Friday I received a 
letter from Mr. Meek, in which his opinion in a great 
measure coincided with my own, but I found it totally 
t. 
hy 
juices are stemmed in their descent at the collar of the 
plant, and enter not into the “ways and means ” of sup- 
plying nourishment to the tubers. "These distinctions, as 
compared with the Turnip and other members of the 
Brassica tribe, are of the utmost importance to be kept 
in view in the ical g of the J lem 
Artichoke., I beg to add one fact connected with the 
culture of this plant which I cannot easily account for, 
and it is that the tubers increase in size and value after 
the haulm is injured by frost, The pre i 
of the stems is a part of the farmer's business, in- 
impossible to put the most essential part in practice, deed I have no sympathy for those who have a 
