NEW METHOD OF REARING OAK. 



225 



only without injury, but with advantage to the oaks, 

 till they are sixteen years old. One-half of them 

 being then cut down, they will be worth at an ave- 

 rage at least twopence each, for spars, paling, &;c. 

 Of the remaining thousand, one-half will require to 

 be cut at twenty-five years old, when they will be 

 fit for roofs to cottages, and similar purposes, and will 

 be worth, on the most moderate calculation, one 

 shilling a piece. The last five hundred may be al- 

 lowed to grow till they are from thirty to thirty-five 

 years old, and will be then so much increased in 

 size, and ameliorated in quality, as to bring from 

 two to five shillings each. To plant nurses, there- 

 fore, 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 thir- 

 ty-five years ; whereas, if oaks alone were planted, 

 nothing 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. 



When Scots firs and larches are planted purpoi^e- 

 ly as nurses for oak, it would be a mere loss of time 

 to delay in planting the latter, after the former have 

 risen to the height of four feet, because they will then 



afford complete shelter both from the winds and 



p 



