946 



niACTlCE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



soils, and its state in respect to water and climate, than on its constituent principles ; moderately shel- 

 tered and on a dry sub-soil, it signifies little whether the surface strata be a clayey, sandy, or calcareous 

 loam ; all the principal trees will thrive neaily equally well in either so circumstanced ; but no trej 

 whatever in these, or in any other soil saturated with water, and in a bleak exposed site. For hedge-row 

 timber, those kinds which grow with lofty stems, which draw their nourishment from the sub-soil, and 

 do least injury by their shade, are to be preferred. These, according to Blakie, are oaks, narrow-leaved 

 elm, and black Italian poplar ; beecli, ash, and firs, he saj-s, are ruinous to fences, and otherwise inju- 

 rious to farmers. (On Hedges and Hedge-row Timber, p. 10.) 



6825. The common practice in planting is to mix different species of trees together, 

 which is unavoidable where nurse or shelter plants are introduced ; where these are not 

 wanted., the opinions of planters are divided on the subject. Mixing different sorts is 

 most generally approved of. Marshall advises mixing the ash with the oak, because the 

 latter draws its nourishment chiefly from the sub-soil, and the former from the surface. 

 Nicol is an advocate for indiscriminate mixture [Practical Planter, p. 77.) ; and Pontey 

 says, " both reason and experience will fidly warrant the conclusion, that the greatest 

 possille quantity of timber is to be obtained by planting mixtures." {Prof. Plantery 

 p. 119.) 



6826. Sang is " clearly of opinion, that the best method is to plant each sort in distinct masses or groups, 

 provided the situation and quality of the soil be properly kept in view. There has hitherto been too 

 much random work carried on with respect to the mixture of different kinds. A longer practice, and 

 more experience, will discover better methods in any science. That of planting is now widely extended ; 

 and improvements in all its branches are introduced. We, therefore, having a better knowledge of soils, 

 perhaps, than our forefathers had, can, with greater certainty, assign to each tree its proper station. 

 We can, perhaps, at sight, decide, that here the oak will grow to perfection, there the ash, and here 

 again the beech ; and the same with respect to the others. If, however, there happen to be a piece of 

 land of such a quality, that it may be said to be equally adapted for the oak, the walnut, or the Spanish 

 chestnut, it will be proper to place such in it, in a mixed way, as the principals ; because each sort 

 will extract its own proper nourishment, and will have an enlarged range of pasturage for its roots, and 

 consequently may make better t.'mber- trees. Although by indiscriminately mixing different kinds of 

 hard-wood jjlants in a plantation, there is hardly a doubt that the ground will be fully cropped with one 

 kind or other, yet it very often happens, in cases where the soil is evidently well adapted to the most 

 valuable sorts, as the oak perhaps, that there is hardly one oak in the ground for a hundred that ought to 

 have been planted. We have known this imperfection in several instances severely felt. It not unfre- 

 qucntly happcr.s, too, that even what oaks, or other hard-wood trees, are to be met with, are overtopped 

 by less valuable kinds, or perhaps such, all things considered, as hardly deserve a place. Such evils may 

 be? prevented by planting with attention to the soil, and in distinct masses. In these masses are ensured 

 a full crop, by being properly nm-sed, for a time, with kinds more hardy, or which afford more shelter 

 than each hard-wood pl-mts. There is no rule by which to tix the size or extent of any of these masses. 

 Indeed, the more various they be made in size, the better will they, when grown up, please the 

 eye of a person of taste. They may be extended from one acre to fifty or a hundred acres, according 

 to the circumstances of soil and situation: their shapes will accordingly be as various as their dimen- 

 sions. In tlie same manner ought all the resinous kinds to be planted, which are intended for timber- 

 lrce5 ; nor should these be intermixed with any other sort, but be in distinct rriasses by themselves. 

 The massing of larch, the pine, and the fir of all sorts, is the least laborious and surest means of pro- 

 ducing good, straight, and clean timber. It is by planting, or rather by sowing them in masses, by 

 placing them thick, by a timeous pruning and gradual thinning, that we can, with certainty, attain to 

 this object." [Plant. Kal. 162. 166.) 



6327. Our opinion is in perfect consonance with that of Sang, and for the same reasons ; and we may add 

 as an additional one, that in the most vigorous natural forests one species of tree will generally be found 

 occupying almost exclusively one soil and situation, while in forests less vigorous on inferior and on 

 watery soils, mixtures of sorts are more prevalent. This may be observed in comparing New Forest with 

 the na'tural woods round Lochlomond, and it is very strikingly exemplified in the great forests of Poland 

 and Russia. 



6828. Whether ertensii^e plantations should be soivn or planted, is a question about which 

 planters are at variance. Miller says, transplanted oaks will never arrive at the size of 

 those raised where they are to remain from the acorn. (Diet. Quercus.) Marshall pre- 

 fers sowing when the ground can be cultivated with the plough. (Plant, and Rur. Ont. i. 

 123.) Evelyn, Emmerich, and Speechly are of the same opinion; Pontey and Nicol 

 practise planting, but offer no arguments against sowing where circumstances are suit- 

 able. Sang says, " It is an opinion veiy generally entertained, that planted timber can 

 never, in any case, be equal in diu-ability and value to thatwliich is sown. We certainly 

 feel ourselves inclined to support this opinion, although we readily admit, that the matter 

 has not been so fully established, from experiment, as to amount to positive proof. But 

 although we have not met with decided evidence, to enable us to determine on the com- 

 parative excellence of timber raised from seeds, without being replanted, over such as 

 have been raised from replanted trees, we are left in no doubt as to the preference, in re- 

 spect of growth, of those trees which are sown, over such as are planted." (Plant. Kal. 

 4.S.) He particularly prefers this mode for raising extensive tracts of the Scotch pine 

 and larch (p. 4S0.), and is decidedly of opinion, " that every kind of forest tree will suc- 

 ceed better by being reared from seeds in tlie place where it is to grow to maturity, than by 

 being raised in any nursery whatever, and from thence traiisplanted into the forest," 

 (p. 344.) Dr. Yule (Caled. Hort. Mem. ii.), in a long paper on trees, strongly recom- 

 mends sowing where the trees are finally to remain. " It is," says he, " a well ascer- 

 tained fact, that seedlings allowed to remain in their original station will, in a few 

 seasons, far overtop the common nursed plants several years older." 



6829. The opinion of Dr. Ytde, and in part also that of Sang, scera? to be founded on the idea that the 

 tap-root is of great importance to grown-up trees, and" that v.-hen this is once cut ofTby transplanting, the 

 plant has not a power of renewing it. That the tap-root is of the utmost consequence for the first three or 

 four years is oBvious from the economy of nature at that age of the plant : perhaps for a longer period •. 



