Cruiclcsharift s Practical Planter. 459 



the varieties of land best adapted for each kind of plants we intend to 

 raise (and this can seldom be found), our choice ought to fall on one 

 adapted for firs, as the nearest approximation we can make towards suiting 

 all descriptions. It is hardly possible to raise a full crop of seedling spruce, 

 birch, or elder, in land of that degree of dryness which is most proper for 

 the Scotch pine and the larch. If possible, therefore, the nursery should 

 contain a portion of moist land, meaning, by this term, not that degree of 

 wetness which consists in swampiness, or in the water appearing above the 

 surface, even in winter, but what is generally understood by the epithet 

 damp. But if no single piece of ground of the requisite extent, or pos- 

 sessing this qualification, can be found, we have no other alternative but 

 either to content ourselves with the more slender crops of the above-men- 

 tioned species, which may be raised without it, or have two separate 

 nurseries, the one calculated for plants which prefer a moist soil, and the 

 other for those of a different nature." (p. 60.) 



The above passage, so much at variance with remarks 

 about the forcing system, induces us to suppose that the latter 

 are from the pen of an Edinburgh editor. If the author found 

 it necessary to have two sorts of soils, in a private nursery,, 

 for raising a few hardy trees, what would he require in a 

 nursery for general purposes, such as we were treating of? 



Chap. III. Purchasing Plants is recommended to those who 

 plant only to a moderate extent. Chap. IV. treats of the Soil 

 proper for the different Forest Trees. The following is valu- 

 able : — 



" The Scots pine is one of the hardiest trees we possess, and it will 

 thrive in very barren situations, provided they be dry. Dryness is, in fact, 

 the most indispensable requisite that land can possess, in order to produce 

 a good crop of Scots pine ; and it is never advisable to plant this tree in 

 very moist ground, or where draining is necessary to carry off the surface 

 water. The soil most favourable to it is, perhaps, a sandy loam, but it will 

 thrive on light soils in general, on a substratum of gravel, or even of solid 

 rock, provided there be as much vegetable mould as to permit it to fix its 

 roots. Gigantic specimens of it are to be seen in the district of Braemar, 

 in Aberdeenshire, in situations where its fibres have found no better lodge- 

 ment than the chinks and crevices of granite. The finest Scots pines any 

 where to be met with occur in the neighbourhood of the river Dee, in the 

 above-mentioned county, especially in Mar forest, the property of the Earl 

 of Fife ; the forest of Glentanner, the property of the Earl of Aboyne ; and 

 the woods of Invercauld, belonging to Mr. Farquharson. In all these 

 places the ground is mountainous, wild, and rugged, and the subsoil varies 

 from the poorest quality of sandy loam to gravel and rock, but in no 

 instance that I recollect does it approach to clay. On the banks of the 

 Don, a neighbouring river, where the soil, in general, has more tenacity, 

 the Scots pine is not found in nearly so great perfection. Stiff land, indeed, 

 seems to be decidedly hostile to its growth, as we scarce ever find it either 

 plentiful, or of large size, in districts where clay abounds. It is very impa- 

 tient of the spray of the sea, and hence comparatively few thriving woods 

 of it occur on the east coast of Scotland. Mountainous regions are its 

 most favourite situations, and in these it will thrive at a greater elevation 

 than any other species of timber, with the exception of the mountain ash 

 and the birch. On a deep rich soil it grows very fast, attains a large size, 

 and soon decays. In these circumstances its wood is spongy, and of inferior 

 value. But, on such land, it is not eligible to plant the Scots pine, what- 



