TREES. 



greatly ejiriched by it, while the public would be alfo 

 benefited by it, iince it would raife a continual fupply of 

 timber ufed in fhip-building, and on other public as well as 

 private occafions. 



We have ia many places heaths, and other barren and 

 uncultivated lands, of very great extent ; and how great 

 an advantage would it be to the public to bring thefe to 

 be truly valuable. Many, if not all of thefe heaths, would 

 be found on trial capable of producing trees ; and fome of 

 them are truly the remains ot dellroyed forefts ; and though 

 the profit to be reaped from the planting of them would 

 come late, yet the expence of doing it would be very 

 trifling in comparifon of that profit, and the means eafy. 

 See Timber and Plantation. 



The authors who have given rules for planting, having 

 employed themfelves only about fmall fpots of ground, the 

 eftabhfhing of orchards or parks, are by no means to be 

 fuppofed proper guides in attempts of this kind ; and 

 Monf. de BufFon, who had a great opinion of the know- 

 ledge of our Evelyn and Miller, who feem to fpeak of 

 evei-y thing from their own experience, found, when he fet 

 about large plantations, that their opinions and rules were 

 erroneous ; and was obliged to have recourfe to experience 

 only, which he varied a thoufand ways ; and though many 

 of them proved unfucccfsful, yet they all gave hints towards 

 others, by which the attempt might afterwards be brought 

 to fucceed. 



This fdgacions enquirer into the operations of nature in 

 the growth of vegetables, having fet apart a confiderable 

 quantity of land for the trial, and procured a number of 

 young trees, firll divided the whole quantity into a number 

 of fmall fquares, and having made a plan of it, examined 

 the nature, depth, and other circumftances of the foil in 

 each, and minuted the whole down on a proper part of the 

 plan ; that himfelf, or whoever fucceeded him, might judge 

 from the different growths of a number of trees planted in 

 the fame (late in thefe different foils, the different advan- 

 tages and difadvantages of every circumflance in the depth 

 and nature of the ground, in regard to the growth of ufeful 

 trees. Different numbers of labourers were employed upon 

 different fpots of this ground, and the acorns for the young 

 growtli planted at different feafons : but the refult in gene- 

 ral was, that what flnould feem the bcft methods fucceeded 

 the worlf ; and thofe pieces where many labourers had been 

 employed, and the acorns planted before winter, were much 

 thinner of young oaks than thofe where the leafl labour had 

 been beflowed upon the ground, and where the acorns had 

 been planted in the fpring : but thofe places which fuc- 

 ceeded bed from the fowing, were thofe which had the 

 acorns planted in holes made by a pick-axe, without any 

 preceding culture of the ground. And thofe where the 

 acorns had only been laid upon the earth, under the grafs, 

 afforded a great number of vigorous young trees, though 

 the greater part had been carried away by birds and other 

 devouring animals. Thofe fpots of ground where the 

 acorns were fet at fix inches depth were much worfe fur- 

 nifhed with young (hoots, than thofe where they had been 

 buried but at an inch deep ; and in fome places where they 

 were buried at a foot deep not one (hoot appeared, though 

 in others, where they had been buried at nine inches, there 

 were many. 



Thofe acorns which had been fteeped for eight or nine 

 ■lays in wine lees, and in tlie water of the common fevvers, 

 appeared out of the ground much earlier than thofe which 

 were put in without this previous management. 



But the moft fucccfsful of all the trials, was that of 

 plauting in the fpring fuch acorns as had been fown toge- 



ther in another place, and had time to (hoot there ; of thefe 

 fcarcely any one failed, and the plantation was perfe<ftly 

 flourifhing, though the growth of thefe young (hoots V7as 

 not fo quick or vigorous as thofe of the acorns which had 

 remained when firit fown ; which was probably owing to 

 the injury the tender radicles received in tranfplanting. 



Thus fucceeded the experiments by fowing, while of 

 thofe made by planting young trees, fuch as had been 

 brought out of woods and places under covert, fucceeded 

 much worfe than thofe which had grown in more expofed 

 places. 



The young trees of the feveral parts of the plantation 

 kept on their growth in the manner they had begun to (hoot, 

 thofe of the more laboured parts continuing moi'e weak, and 

 lower than thofe of the lefs laboured. 



Thus were a number of neceffary experiments carefully 

 tried, and the refult of the whole was, that to make a 

 plantation of oaks, on a foil of the common clayey or loamy 

 kind, the moft fuccefsfiJ method is this : the acorns mull 

 be preferved during the winter in the earth in this manner ; 

 let there be made a bed of earth of fix inches deep ; on this 

 place a layer of acorns, two inches deep ; over thefe lay a 

 bed of another half foot of earth, over that another layer of 

 acorns, and fo on fucceflively, tiU as many are employed as 

 there will be occafion for : the whole is then to be covered 

 with a foot depth of earth to preferve all from the froft. 

 In the beginning of March thefe beds are to be opened, 

 and the acorns, which will by that time have (hot out, and 

 are then in reality fo many young oaks, are to be planted 

 out a foot diilance each, and the fuccefs of a plantation of 

 this kind need not be feared. This is a manner of planting 

 that is done at a fmall expence, and even that might be in a 

 great meafure fpared, were it not for the birds and other 

 devouring animals ; fince, could the acorns be defended 

 from thefe, they might be only laid on the furface of 

 the ground under the grafs in autumn, and they would 

 infallibly (hew themfelves in fo many young oaks the fuc- 

 ceeding fpring. 



It is eafy to continue the carrying of the acorns, when 

 taken out of their winter's bed, to the place where they 

 are to be planted, without doing them much injury ; and 

 the fmall flop the tranfplanting puts to their growth is in 

 reality rather an advantage than an injury, (ince it only 

 retards the young (lioots for about three weeks, or lefs than 

 that ; and by that means fecures tliem from the few cold 

 mornings that may be expefted about the time of their 

 natural appearance. Mem. Acad. Scienc. Paris, 1739. 

 See TiiMBER. 



An experiment to determine the comparative durability 

 of different kinds of timber, when expofed to the weather, 

 was made by a nobleman in Norfolk ; of which an account 

 is given by fir Thomas Beevor. This nobleman, in the 

 year 1774, ordered three poifs, forming two fides of a quad- 

 rangle, to be fixed in the earth on a rifing ground in his 

 parii. Into thefe pofts were mortifed planks, an inch and 

 a iialf thick, cut out of trees from 30 to 45 years' growth. 

 Thefe, after (landing ten years, were examined, and found in 

 the following (late and condition : 



The cedar was perfedly found ; larch, the heart found, 

 but the fap quite decayed ; fpruce fir, found ; filver fir, in 

 decay ; Scotch fir, much decayed ; pinafter, quite rotten ; 

 chefnut, perfectly found ; abele, found ; beech, found ; wal- 

 nut, in decay ; fycamore, much decayed ; birch, quite rot- 

 ten. Sir Thomas Beevor juftly remarks, that the trees 

 ought to have been of the fame age ; and Mr. Arthur Young 

 adds, they ought to iiave been cut out of the fame plant- 

 ation. 



The 



