352 



NOTICES OF x^UTHOllS. 



winds. Mr Cruickshank, who has never carried his 

 plan into execution, except in an experiment em- 

 bracing a few yards, directs that the ground in- 

 tended for oak forest should first be planted with 

 Scots fir and larch, about 4000 to the acre, by the 

 single-notch process, previously described, which 

 can be accomplished under L. 1 per acre. As soon 

 as these have risen to four feet in height, he pre- 

 pares patches about two feet square and ten feet 

 distant in the interstices, by digging the soil over, 

 and mixing a spadeful of slaked lime carefully with 

 the mould, taking out a tree whenever the inter- 

 stices do not suit for the patches. He then plants, 

 in the end of March or beginning of April, five 

 acorns in each patch, about an inch deep, one in the 

 centre, and the other four in the angles of a foot 

 square, and gives them no farther attention for two 

 years, except removing any overhanging low fir 

 branch. He then goes over the patches, cutting 

 out all the supernumerary plants, a few inches be- 

 low the surface, leaving the most promising one on 

 each patch, being very careful not to disturb any of 

 its roots in cutting out the others. As these oak 

 plants extend in size, he gradually removes the fir. 



Excepting the bare plan itself, which is certainly 

 very plausible, there is nothing in the description 



