SECT. X. OF FOREST TREES, i!5 



In open planting for timber, to make only the holes 

 good where the trees are fet, is fufficient, if the foil is 

 not ftrong, (which generally fpeaking however _ it 

 fliould be,) and in fuch plantations the plough being 

 ufed for corn, or fome fort of crop to be carried on 7 , 

 the whole foil will be prepared for the trees' roots to 

 fpread. A plantation of this fort may be conftantly 

 under the plough, till the trees {hade too much, and 

 then it may be fown down for grafs, which laying 

 warm, and coming early, would be found ufeful. The 

 opportunity given to improve a foil by this cultivation, 

 would infure very fine timber. 



But a -plantation of trees being made (as fuppofe of 

 oaks J at due diftances, and the ground ploughed tor two 

 or three years, while they got a little a-head, then it 

 might be foivn profitably, with nuts, keys and feeds for 

 underwood, observing to thin the plants the fecond year, 

 and again the third, till two or three feet afunder ifi 

 poor ground, and to three or four feet diftance if rich. 

 In fourteen or fifteen years, (or much fooner for fome 

 purpofes), the a/b poles, &c. will be fine, and meet with 

 a ready fale as ufeful fluff: Afterwards the underwood 

 will be fit to cut, in a ftrong ftate, every eleven or 

 twelve years. In the management of underwood, 

 fome have thinned the plants while young, to three 

 feet afunder, and cut them down at three years, to 

 about fix inches, in order to form /loots, which in about 

 ten years are cut, having produced feveral flems from 

 each. Some perfons have cut feedling trees down at 

 this age to three inches for timber, leaving only one 

 ftrong (hoot to grow from each ftool; and thus finer 

 trees are frequently (or rather certainly) produced, 

 than from feedlings not cut down. 



The diftances of the timber plants, may be from 

 twenty-five to thirty-five feet, according to the foil, 

 or Qpinion of the planter. If no view to underwood, the 

 above open planting may he made clofe, by fetting firft 

 the principals (which fhould be fine plants) and then 



filling 



