a 
THE BIRCH. 307 
grown, are ahout six inches high, and usually sell at from 
3s. to 4s. per 1000. They are transplanted, when one year 
old, into lines one foot apart, and the plants three or four inches 
asunder; when they remain two years in lines they are 
generally from two to three feet high, and fit for the forest, 
and then they usually sell at from 20s. to 25s. per 1000. 
The tree is frequently grown as a nurse for other trees ; such 
as the oak, the chestnut, etc. It is also used as underwood, 
and for coppice-wood ; but of the two varieties the common 
sort is best adapted for being planted for coppice-wood ; it 
springs more readily from the root, and is not so apt to die off 
as the weeping variety. The pruning and lopping of the 
birch should be performed in autumn or early winter, to avoid 
bleeding. For hoops it is commonly cut every five or six 
years, and for bark every eighteen or twenty years. 
The Weeping Birch differs from our other pendulous trees, 
which are commonly grafted on the tops of tall stocks. It 
commonly attains the age of fifteen or twenty years, and in a 
cultivated state twenty or thirty feet in height, before it 
assumes a pendulous form. The extremities of the more 
vigorous lateral branches then begin to droop, while the top 
shoots generally hold on in an upward direction until the 
vigour of the tree subsides. The beauty of the tree, where 
embellishment is the object, may generally be much enhanced 
by a careful thinning out of the branches when they appear 
in athicket inthe top. Immediately after the lateral branches 
first begin to take a downward direction is the time for thin- 
ning them, at same time giving the surface of the ground, for 
a few yards in diameter around the trunk, a coating of two or 
three inches deep of thoroughly dissolved byre manure and 
decayed leaves, removing all surface vegetation on the ground 
before applying it. This adds vigour to the descending spray, 
the beauty of which, on well-grown specimens, is surpassed by 
no other kind of pendulous vegetation. 
Not long ago, in many parts of the Highlands, the birch 
may be said to have been the universal wood, and used by 
the Highlanders for every purpose. They made their beds, 
