272 COKYLACE.E. 



In forming mixed plantations, where the Oak is intro- 

 duced, and where it is intended to stand for timber after 

 the other occupants have been removed or thinned out, 

 great attention is necessary in selecting the kinds best 

 adapted for nurses, or as intermediate occupants, and 

 at the same time suited to the soil upon which the planta- 

 tion is meant to be raised. 



In the north of England and in Scotland, where, within 

 the last forty or fifty years, a large extent of surface has 

 been appropriated to the raising of timber, a great error 

 has very generally been committed, in introducing, in too 

 large a proportion, the wych elm, the ash, and the beech, 

 with the oak, as the habit and growth of these species 

 render them peculiarly inimical to the progress of this 

 tree, which bears interference with less patience, and 

 suffers more from close contact, than almost any other ; 

 the first, indeed, we think, ought to be almost entirely 

 excluded* from mixed plantations, as it is certain, from 

 its rampant growth for the first few years after being 

 planted, from its wide-spreading head, and the fanlike 

 form of its branches, to overtop, lash, and injure every 

 other species around it, add to which, that it is only upon 

 land of superior quality that it attains a large and valuable 

 size, as it almost invariably becomes stunted and unhealthy 

 upon clayey soils, however rapidly it may grow for the 

 first eight or ten years, during which period it seldom 

 fails to do serious injury to its neighbours, and particularly 

 to the slower-growing Oak. 



The ash, also, when it attains a considerable height, 

 becomes a most injurious neighbour to the Oak, for, being 

 drawn up with a long straight stem, of nearly the same 

 diameter throughout the greater part of its length, and 



* In low and rich bottom ground it might perhaps be planted with the ash. 



