282 THE BEECH. 
bare, which unfit them for successful removal afterwards. In 
some soils, however, the roots keep fibrous enough till the 
end of the third year. After being two or three years in lines, 
the plants are generally fit for their final destination, but if 
required of a greater size they should be transplanted, giving 
additional space according to their size. The beech admits 
of removal at a great size, provided its roots are kept in a 
bushy state, by being frequently disturbed. A few years ago 
I removed several hundred yards of beech hedge six feet high, 
to make way for the Highland Railway through my nursery 
ground. The hedge had been about twenty years planted, and 
had been occasionally dug and root-pruned, to prevent the 
spread of its fibres. It was trenched out in lengths of three 
or four feet, and carted to a new situation, where it was in- 
serted, and at once became a complete fence along a road 
side. Hedges might thus be reared which would at once 
become fences in most places, with little or no protection. 
See HEDGES. 
Few trees in a living state are so valuable as the beech for 
a shelter or screen fence in prepared ground. It succeeds 
everywhere, particularly in calcareous soil. It is well adapted 
as an agricultural tree in sheltering fields in bare and exposed 
situations, where the surface soil is apt to drift in rough 
weather. 
I know a fine screen-fence, planted twenty-five years, thirty- 
five feet high at the present time. The top has not been 
trimmed for the last twenty years. To the height of eight 
feet it has been regularly under the shears, with an occa- 
sional dressing at the root of lime and manure, at intervals of 
six or eight years. It retains its foliage in winter, and is a 
close and compact, shelter down to the surface of the ground, 
affording April weather in March, and the usual warmth of 
May in April. In ordinary soil, after the plant has taken 
root in the forest, its usual growth upward is from eighteen 
inches to two feet yearly. 
Considered as an ornament, few trees claim our attention be- 
fore the beech. Its stem is massive and powerful, its bark is 
