592 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 
similar material might be produced to-day, if close planting and slow growth were 
the rule. To prove this, he gives the actual dimensions of Scots fir grown under 
two different conditions in Ireland. 
Grown thirty to the acre, with 
spreading crowns. 
Girth 5 feet 
Height. ‘ BO ae 
Age. . 40 years 
Diameter . 20 inches 
Heartwood ; . 12 i 
Sapwood . i oO w 
Rings per inch . 4, uneven 
These trees are quickly grown 
on deep soft soil, and are liable to be 
blown over. Timber, coarse, knotty, 
light, and perishable; large amount of 
Grown 200 to the acre, with 
small crowns, 
5 feet. 
75» 
100 years. 
20 inches. 
19 ” 
1 inch. 
Io, regular. 
These trees were slowly grown ona 
hill-side on poor and stony soil; standing 
close they resist storms. Timber fine- 
grained, hard, heavy, durable, and equal 
sapwood. to best Memel. Scarcely any sapwood. 
Mr. Webber has kindly written to me that the trees just mentioned grow on his 
own property at Kellyville, near Athy, in Co. Kildare. A beam, made out of the fine 
pine timber grown on the hill-side, placed in the front of a conservatory twenty-five 
years ago, is still sound and good. Mr. Webber has Scots pine thriving on pure rock, 
where there is little or no soil. He states that at Emo Park near Portarlington and 
on the road to Maryborough there are striking instances of pine succeeding on pure 
black bog, and self-sown seedlings may be seen spreading all over the turf-moss. He 
reiterates the conclusions given above, namely, that the pine should be planted 
densely on poor soils, where it will resist the wind and yield timber without any 
appreciable sapwood, whereas on deep soft soils it is easily blown over and yields 
In the bog in Emo Park, Mr. Webber found great 
bases of Scots pines with their roots in the boulder clay, of gigantic size, showing 
that the tree was indigenous before the bog began to grow ages ago. 
In some parts of Ireland, Scots pine may be seen thriving on deep peat-moss, 
the condition necessary for success being judicious preliminary drainage. In mosses 
soaking with water, trees languish and die on account of the lack of air at their roots. 
On the other hand, if the drainage is too deep, the upper layer of the peat becomes 
so dry, that the trees suffer from want of water. Near Castledawson in Co. Derry, 
a considerable area of undrained peat-moss is covered by healthy and vigorous pine 
trees, which are natural seedlings, the product of seeds blown from an adjoining 
plantation. Here, however, the peat-moss rests on the side of a sloping sandhill and 
is not waterlogged. Natural pine seedlings are often seen on peat-mosses, struggling 
for life in the wettest situations ; and doubtless, if cattle and rabbits were excluded, 
these would in time take possession. At Churchill in Co. Armagh, the property of 
Harry Verner, Esq., considerable plantations of Scots pine, intermixed with a small 
proportion of larch, were made in 1861 on deep peat-moss, which had been thoroughly 
coarse and valueless timber. 
