NEW METHOD OF REARING OAK. 



227 



the following preparations be made : — Mark off a 

 patch of two feet square, notch it round with the 

 spade, and trench it a foot deep, using an earth-pick 

 or mattock if the hardness of the ground require it, 

 and throwing out all large stones. Proceed in this 

 manner till the requisite number of patches be form- 

 ed, letting them be about ten feet distance from one 

 another, by which means there will be a few more 

 than five hundred of them in the superfices of a 

 Scots acre. In land which is very stony, it will be 

 sometimes impracticable to make the distances be- 

 tween them completely regular ; but this is a mat- 

 ter of Httle importance, provided the inequalities be 

 not great, and nearly balance each other ; where pos- 

 sible, however, it is proper that exact regularity be 

 observed. When Scots firs and larches have been 

 purposely raised on the ground for shelter, they will 

 occasionally interfere with the distance between the 

 patches. When this happens, the inconvenience 

 may always be obviated by rooting up a single plant; 

 but let the expedient be adopted as seldom as pos- 

 sible, for if the nurses be only of the height above 

 specified, there will not be the slightest necessity fot 

 thinning them, in order to admit the air. What- 

 ever be the age of the plantation, if the patches be 

 not overshadowed by the lower tier of branches, the 



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