GROWING GOLD. 



51 



The first introducers of these trees into the 

 midland and southern parts of Britain, must 

 have stated some reason for the preference, 

 but it could not have been the superiority of 

 such timber over that of oak, nor that pines 

 would grow better on inferior soils than the 

 native trees, because, in every part of the 

 kingdom, oak is to be found growing on poor 

 soils of all kinds. Larch, &c. have been 

 planted amongst old oaks, as if they were of 

 equal, if not superior value to the native 

 trees ; in other places they are used as nurses 

 for young ones. This favors the opinion that 

 the advocates of such a system were deluded 

 by the notion that the rate of growth of the 

 pride of our forests was inferior to that of tlie 

 pine class. Indeed, there is a sort of tra- 

 ditional belief in many parts of the kingdom, 

 that oak is a slow growing tree, a belief 

 which was in all probability induced in the 

 first instance by its longevity, and afterwards 

 strengthened by the erroneous system of 

 cultivation. But the measures of the size of 

 various kinds of trees, near oaks, given in the 



