Observations on Irish Planting. 173 



are tough, and seldom injured by storms ; it does not injure the 

 grasses beneath by its shade or drip. Near Killarney is a row 

 40 ft. in height, and averaging 3 ft. in diameter. 



The Holly delights in a moist atmosphere ; and is much injured 

 by the smoke of towns. At Killarney, trees 30 ft. in height are not 

 uncommon ; one at Innisfallen, at %\ ft. from the ground, was 

 39 in. in diameter. Hollies survive the wood in which they 

 were reared. Holly timber stands better than brass for steps [?] 

 in machinery. A variety with yellow berries occurs at Blarney, 

 near Cork. 



The Ash raised in rich soils fails remarkably in poorer. It 

 grows well in almost any soil or elevation in Ireland ; yet of ash 

 plantations in the same soil, rich or poor, several fail alongside 

 of those that have succeeded. We must suppose some subterra- 

 neous enemy or disease attacks them ; this conjecture is perhaps 

 supported by the general sweetness of the sap in the genus to 

 which it belongs. At Leix, in the Queen's County, in 1792, 

 the celebrated ash, at 1 ft. from the ground, measured 40| ft. in 

 circumference; its branches extend 70 ft. The ash injures other 

 plants remarkably by its drip ; and yet in moist soils it seems to 

 drain the ground and give it firmness. Its young shoots are 

 greatly injured by late frosts. It finds the readiest market, 

 and at the earliest age, of any tree in the country, in Ireland. 



The Oak bears transplanting badly after three years old. The 

 remains of oak woods, kept down for years by the browsing of 

 cattle, have been observed by Mr. Critchley of the county of 

 Wicklow to grow up into fine trees by fencing alone. One oak, 

 in Lord O'Neil's Park, near Lough Neagh, was sold for up- 

 wards of 2007. Mr. Critchley's oak woods doubled their value 

 between the fifteenth and twentieth year. An oak at Castle Cor, 

 in the county of Cork, is 25 ft. in circumference at 6 ft. from 

 the ground, and has growing on it a stem of ivy 7 ft. in circum- 

 ference. 



The Pines adapt themselves to a variety of climates, and one 

 or other species may be found to thrive in all sorts of soils, from 

 the driest quartzose sand to turf bogs. Their growth is rapid, and 

 duration protracted. They multiply with great facility by seed, 

 but the principal stem once cut down never recovers. Growing 

 closer, they yield more timber on the same space of ground than 

 round-leaved trees. 



A species of pine was once indigenous to Ireland ; the stems 

 are still found in our turf bogs. It is not the P. sylvestris ; the 

 roots bear a much greater proportion in size to the stem. In the 

 county of Kerry, I found the horizontal section of one, where the 

 roots commenced, to be 7 ft. in diameter; while the stem, at 2 ft. 

 in height, was scarcely 4 ft. The stems of the bog deal, besides, 

 are often remarkably twisted. 



