THE ASH TREE. 359 
frosts of the succeeding spring are over, when they require to 
be protected by any light covering, such as that of straw, fern, 
or the twigs of firs or other evergreens. When the seeds are 
rotted in the pit for fifteen months, and sown about the last 
week of February or early in March, they are later in appear- 
ing above ground, and are generally exempt from injury by 
frost. If the ground is rich the plants will be six or seven 
inches high the first year, and may then be transplanted ; 
when of a less size, and thin enough, they had better be allowed 
two years in the seed-bed, after which they should be trans- 
planted into lines eighteen inches apart, and the plants six 
inches distant. When they have been two years in this situa- 
tion they generally stand about three feet high, and are fit for 
ordinary forest planting, but when required of greater strength 
they should be again transplanted in the nursery, with space 
allowed in proportion to the height desired. 
The most approved method of growing ash timber is to 
plant the tree by itself in a congenial soil. It being naturally a 
loose-headed open object, and inclined to ramify, it is then apt 
to form straight clean timber, and to require less pruning than 
when it is interspersed among other trees. The soil it delights 
in most is a sweet hazelly loam of considerable depth, and the 
situation it prefers is the bottom of a hill or slope near to a 
river, where, without being saturated with water, its roots may 
yet have access to moisture in the heat of summer. In the 
case of some trees we look for an advantage after slow growth 
in having hard and durable timber. Not so with the ash ; its 
growth should be hastened by good soil and a somewhat 
sheltered situation ; for it is always found that when stopped 
midway in its career, either by its roots reaching a sour and 
wet subsoil, or by the poorness of the land, the wood becomes 
brittle and shaky. In the case of large plantations, therefore, 
where a variety of soils exists, it is always well to remember 
that the properties of the ash in perfection—strength, tough- 
ness, and elasticity—are the result of a free and unimpeded 
growth. 
The final situation of the ash should therefore be carefully 
