154. WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
till the oaks are between thirty and forty years old. ‘'I'wo 
thousand of the Scotch pines and larches,’ Cruickshank adds, 
‘may be allowed to remain, not only without injury, but 
with advantage, to the oaks, till they are sixteen years old.’ 
Half of them may then be cut down, one half of the remaining 
one thousand at twenty-five years old, and the remaining five 
hundred at from thirty to thirty-five years old. ‘'T’o plant 
nurses, therefore, is attended with very great pecuniary advan- 
tage. It will not only return the whole expense laid out in 
making the plantation, but produce a very high rent for the 
land during the first thirty or thirty-five years; whereas, if oaks 
alone were planted, nothmg could be gained during this period, 
except by cutting them down when between twenty and twenty- 
five years old, for the sake of their bark.’’—Arb., p. 1801, 1802. 
When the new plantations in the royal forests, (now exceed- 
ing forty thousand acres,) were begun, the most skilful and 
experienced planters of oaks, in all parts of the kingdom, were 
consulied, as to the best modes of planting, and particularly in 
reference to the use of Scotch pincs as nurses. Very various 
and somewhat discordant opinions were given, and, in conse- 
quence, several different methods were pursued, and with vari- 
ous success. 
“For several years past,’’ according to Alexander Milne, 
(Loudon, p. 1803,) the plan pursued at the New Forest ‘is 
to plant the enclosures with Scotch pines only, as soon as they 
are fenced in and drained (if draining is required); and when 
the pines have got to the height of five or six fect, which they 
will do in as many years, then to put in good strong oak plants 
of about four or five years’ growth, among the pines, not cutting 
away any pines at first, unless they happen to be so strong and 
thick as to overshadow the oaks. In about two years it be- 
comes necessary 1o shred the branches of the pines, to give hight 
and air to the oaks; and, in about two or three more years to 
begin gradually to remove the pines altogether, taking out a 
certain number each year, so that, at the end of twenty or 
twenty-five years, not a single Scotch pine shall be left; 
although, for the first ten or twelve years, the plantation may 
have appeared to contain nothing else but pines. '[he advan- 
