216 White Spruce Fir, as a Nurse. 



We shall be happy to receive the details alluded to, and 

 request Olitor to explain them, as concisely as possible, and 

 always by references to letters or figures on the plan, and 

 never by writing on it, as words cannot well be copied in 

 reduced wood engravings. We prefer, also, such explanations 

 as can be read with or without looking at the plan, at plea- 

 sure ; such, for instance, as the last sentence in Juvenis Oli- 

 tor's letter Cond. 



Art. IX. On the JCbies alba, or White Spruce Fir, as a 

 NjD^se in Plantations. By Mr. James Fraser, Dartfield. 



Sir, 



In course of conversation with Mr. M'Leish, who made a 

 professional visit here, about three months ago, he mentioned 

 that the white American spruce (^^bies alba) was one of the 

 best and hardiest nurses he had met with, in exposed situations; 

 and, in proof of his assertion, adduced several places in the 

 county of Sligo, where it had succeeded in a preeminent de- 

 gree. Understanding, previously to this, that the ^^bies-alba 

 was planted in considerable quantity at a neighbouring place, 

 Ballydugan, the demesne of W. M. Burke, Esq., I went there 

 for the express purpose of ascertaining its relative progress, 

 and I found Mr. M'Leish's statement fully confirmed. 



The demesne of Ballydugan is situated on the eastern side 

 of a hill of considerable eminence, and the plantations crowning 

 the summit are among the most elevated and exposed in the 

 county of Galway. Along the whole range of the south-west, 

 or most stormy side, of the hill, the white American spruce and 

 Scotch pine have been planted in the margin, in some places in 

 alternate groups, in others promiscuously ; and I uniformly 

 observed the latter stunted, and the former resisting the blast. 

 In the interior of the wood I found the white American 

 spruce almost peering with the Norway spruce. However, 

 I here wish to confine my observations to the tree as a 

 nurse, and should you, at any distant period, consider my 

 observations worthy of a place in your Magazine, I will write 

 at length on its relative quality, as compared with the other 

 spruces. 



What I have above mentioned regarding the quality of this 

 tree as a nurse may be of some interest to planters, as it may 

 serve as a substitute for the Scotch pine, against which a kind 

 of fashionable outcry has been lately raised. 



