NEW METHOD OF KEARiNG OAK. 221 



tioiis laid down in chapter sixth, every thing being 

 conducted as if the Scots firs and larches were to be 

 the principal or only crops. The plants are to be 

 put in at the distance of four feet from each other, 

 so that four thousand of them will be required for a 

 Scots acre, and the expense will amount to from 15s. 

 to 20s. for that extent of land. Care must be ta- 

 ken to leave regular avenues of the kind already de- 

 scribed through the plantation. No oaks, or rather 

 no acorns, are to be planted, until the Scots firs and 

 larches have risen to the height of about four feet from 

 the ground, when they will be in a condition to af- 

 ford complete shelter to every thing lower than 

 themselves. To attain that size, they will require 

 from four to seven years, according to the quality of 

 the soil. 



The practice of planting nurses, as they are called, 

 to afford shelter to oak, has sometimes been adopted 

 even in the old system ; but generally on a plan es- 

 sentially different from that now recommended. In- 

 stead of the nurses being planted several years be- 

 fore the oaks, it has been common to plant them at 

 the same time. By this means, the oaks have no 

 efficient shelter for several seasons ; and, during that 

 period, they receive so much damage as to have the 

 effect of impeding their growth for many years, even 



