CruicJcsJianJc's Practical Planted. 453 



vol. ii. p. 269. ; and to our Encyc. of Gard., 2d edit. § 6828. ; 

 and Encyc. of Agr., § 3645. What Mr. Cruickshank calls 

 " a new method of rearing the oak," is, planting the acorns 

 in plantations of pines, firs, or other trees, of 3 or 4 years' 

 growth, in order that they may be sheltered during their 

 infancy : a very excellent mode, and particularly well adapted 

 for the north of Scotland ; but which, as it has been long 

 practised at Welbeck in Nottinghamshire, and in the New 

 Forest in Hampshire, is, at least, not new in England. Hav- 

 ing pointed out what we consider faults in this work, we shall 

 now proceed to the more agreeable task of indicating its most 

 valuable passages. 



In the introductory remarks on the advantages of planting, 

 the hackneyed subject of providing timber for the navy is 

 dwelt on. It seems that, if our foreign intercourse were cut 

 off, our oaks fit for the navy would be completely exhausted in 

 the course of four or five years. In our opinion, it is a mat- 

 ter of no consequence whether our oaks will last two years or 

 five years : while the country has money, oaks, or a substi- 

 tute, will be found in abundance ; and cheaper far than they 

 can ever be grown by government in national forests. We 

 see no more reason, therefore, for recommending the culture of 

 wood, in a national view, than we do for recommending the 

 growth of wheat or potatoes on the same grounds. Our 

 author argues with more effect when he recommends planting 

 waste lands, at present producing only heaths, or a very 

 scanty pasture ; and he has the merit of having shown, in a 

 more forcible manner than any writer that has preceded him, 

 that " planting may even be used as a means of preparing 

 uncultivated land for agricultural improvement." 



" It may seem a very paradoxical fact, but it is nevertheless true, that 

 wood, instead of impoverishing the ground on which it is produced, enriches 

 it. There is very little of our waste land that, if trenched or ploughed, will 

 carry even a moderate crop of grain, unless it receive a considerable quan- 

 tity of manure. After bearing timber, however, the contrary is found to be 

 true. 



" On a rising ground, not far from the village of Ellon, a piece of ground 

 of a dry gravelly nature, which had been lately cleared of a crop of full- 

 grown Scots firs, was trenched in a very partial and imperfect manner, the 

 roots of the trees being scarcely eradicated. It was then sown with oats, 

 without receiving either lime, dung, or manure of any other description : 

 yet the crop was so luxuriant that a great part of it lodged. The following 

 spring the ground was again sown with the same species of grain, without 

 receiving any enrichment; and, when harvest arrived, the crop was un- 

 equalled by that of the richest fields, in a neighbourhood which is generally 

 considered as fertile. The experiment was tried a third time, still without 

 manure, and the return was again considerably above an average. The 

 soil, as has already been remarked, was dry and gravelly, and far from pos- 

 sessing any natural qualities that could have been the cause of such extra- 



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