360 THE ASH TREE. 
chosen; and nothing gives the plant a more rapid start than 
trenched soil. In firm or hard soil, however, large pits are 
made ; the roots on reaching the undisturbed ground make 
little progress compared to their vigour in land trenched two 
feet deep. In cases where the soil is wet it must be drained, 
for although the tree is partial to moisture, no plant is more 
readily injured by stagnant water. In mossy soil it does not 
attain to a great size ; but on such it grows and forms valuable 
coppice-wood. The time for planting is from October to the 
middle of April. In ordinary sheltered ground the ash should 
be inserted in holes in the trenched land, about five or six 
feet apart. Early thinnings are more valuable than that of 
most other trees. Where the ground is high and exposed, 
nurses may be introduced, either as a mixture, or along the mar- 
gins of the most exposed parts. The nurses may be the pines, 
larch, or alder, etc.—these to be thinned out as circumstances 
require, giving the trees uninterrupted possession of the ground 
after they have become established, which is usually ten or 
twelve years after being planted. At this period, pruning, so 
far as to prevent a plurality of leading shoots, is of much 
advantage, and is generally but little required in a healthy 
plantation of this tree at any other time. The ash was planted 
extensively by the late Earl of Leicester at Holkham. It 
there occupies various soils and situations, and the result 
illustrates in a striking manner how much judgment is neces- 
sary in fixing for it a permanent site. Some of the trees when 
fifty years old contained only thirty cubic feet, whilst others 
are said to have contained seventy-six. 
Important uses belong to ash timber. The manufacturer of 
agricultural implements employs it in the construction of carts, 
waggons, carriages of all sorts, ploughs, harrows; and it is 
specially adapted for the handles of rakes, forks, spades, shovels, 
mattocks, and the construction of dairy utensils. It is used for 
important purposes by the millwright, and it is the chief wood 
of the coachmaker and wheelwright. The cooper makes his 
hoops of it, and the fisherman his oars, and it is unrivalled in 
all purposes where strength and elasticity are required. As it 
