MONTEATH'S FORESTER'S GUIDE. 145 



very languid, and growth slow, in any branch hori- 

 zontally extended, especially when upright stems 

 from the same root are suffered to remain. He also 

 expects the layer-roots to become strong and ca- 

 pable to forage for large trees. That they will, in 

 the oak, ever become so, we think very improbable. 

 Examination of the roots which proceed from oak- 

 layers would place this beyond dispute ; if they are, 

 as we presume, fibrous and slender, similar to those 

 produced by apple-layers, no tree or bush of any 

 great size will result. Large trees, generally, cannot 

 be procured by layers, but only in those semiaquatic 

 kinds which grow readily by slips. Whether it may 

 be advantageous to fill up the vacancies of copse by 

 layers, in preference to seed-plants, experience only 

 can determine. The bark of trees or bushes raised 

 by layers or cuttings is generally thicker than that 

 of those raised from seed :-— this might balance some 

 deficiency of the growth in the case of oak-coppice. 



Our author advises the cutting off the upper part 

 of spruce-trees on the outside of plantations, in order 

 that their lower branches may extend the more, and 

 remain vigorous,^thence affording more adequate 

 shelter to the within plantation. Perhaps it is quite 

 unnecessary to guard any person from practising this 

 piece of folly. On the outside of woods, spruce-firs 



K 



