THE NEW FORESTRY. 43 



as soon as possible, and promote shelter and height growth. 

 If in the British nursing system the permanent crop had been 

 planted thickly — say three or four feet from tree to tree, and 

 nurses put in between, reducing the distance to from eighteen 

 inches to two feet, the system might have been defensible, but 

 the mistake has been that the nurses have taken the place of 

 the permanent crop, and while of little or no value in them- 

 selves, have not fulfilled the purpose for which they were 

 intended. In other words, the number of the trees to the acre 

 of the permanent crop have been far too few, and the number 

 of nurses disproportionately large, and both together planted 

 so far apart that they could afford no protection to each other 

 when it was most needed, viz., the first few years after. planting. 

 In addition to this, the nurses have often been of the wrong 

 kind, and been left too long, their removal then causing a 

 severe check to the permanent crop, as may be seen in the New 

 Forest and elsewhere, where the oaks have become pre- 

 maturely stunted. So far as we know, the nursing system 

 adopted in this country is unknown elsewhere, and one or two 

 examples will suffice to show to what absurd lengths the 

 practice has been carried. At page 584 of "The Forester," 

 is a coloured diagram, made out with much care, that has led 

 many astray. This diagram shows the permanent or ultimate 

 crop of timber trees, consisting of oak, ash, elm and sycamore, 

 planted from twelve to seventeen feet apart, or rather less than 

 three hundred trees to the imperial acre, where from four to 

 five thousand ought to be the number. The spaces between the 

 hard-wood species named are filled up with larch and Scotch 

 fir, from four feet to six feet apart over all, or at a total average 

 rate, hard-woods and nurses together, of about seventeen 

 hundred to the acre, of which number some fourteen hundred 

 are nurses to be removed before they can be of a remunerative 

 size. The worst feature of the business, however, is that all 

 the four species to be nursed are as hardy or hardier than 

 their nurses, the sycamore and beech particularly ; the whole 

 of the four species probably smothering their nurses early in 

 the struggle. 



This diagram of Brown's has been reproduced in many of 

 the forest tree catalogues of the principal nurserymen in Great 

 Britain, who supply trees and often conduct planting operations. 

 The following is an example in. which the spaces between the 

 trees are even wider than they are in Brown's, and all the 

 " L's " and " F's " represent nurses to be early removed, leaving 

 a permanent crop of one hundred and eight trees to the acre ! 



