104 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



those adapted for Scots fir, deep and fairly moist gravels, 

 which maintain a moderate rather than a luxuriant growth. 

 Where pit-wood pure and simple is required, few if any 

 species excel Corsican pine for that purpose, for its upright 

 growth and small crown for the first twenty or thirty years 

 enable very heavy crops to be grown in a short time. 

 Where heavy timber is aimed at, it should either be grown 

 pure in the same way as Scots fir, or mixed with larch or 

 spruce, which can be taken out when suppressed, or when 

 more room is wanted for the pines ; for there is little danger 

 of the Corsican either getting crushed out by other species 

 in a mixture, or developing a coarse head when allowed 

 plenty of room. Compared with Scots fir, the timber of 

 Corsican pine is of better quality when both are grown 

 rapidly, being heavier and more durable, and containing a 

 larger proportion of summer wood in the annual rings, while 

 the yield is about 50 per cent. more. 



The Corsican pine has one failing in the eyes of planters, 

 and that is the large percentage of failures among recently 

 transplanted trees. The roots of young plants have very 

 few fibres, and when the two or three bare straggling roots 

 they possess get dry or injured, the plants often succumb 

 before they are able to throw out new ones. In trans- 

 planting this tree two important points should always be 

 attended to : one is, never to let the roots get dry if it can 

 be avoided ; and the other, never to transplant them in mid- 

 winter. Early autumn or late spring should always be the 

 time chosen to move them, so that the plants can either 

 get established before cold dry winds (the terror of all 

 recently transplanted evergreen trees) set in, or the season 

 for such winds be over before they are moved. If these rules 

 were carefully attended to, combined with careful planting, 

 failures would not be much more numerous than with other 

 species. 



The Weymouth Pine (Pinus strolus). 



Although this pine is not so well adapted for such a 

 variety of soils, nor such a free grower as the Corsican, it is 

 certainly one which deserves to rank as an important timber 



