APPEJTDIX. 



513 



year transplanted, equal numbers of each ; so that, when the planta- 

 tion is finished, the plants shall stand three and a half feet asunder — 

 making between four and five thousand on a Scotch acre. 



Let the worse parts of the ground, which are unable to produce Oak 

 and Ash, (I mean particularly where the soil is shallow, dry, and sandy, 

 or consists of a mixture of sand and moss or peat,) be covered with 

 Birch and Mountain Ash, equal numbers of each. The plants to stand 

 seven feet asunder, as above ; and the intervals to be filled with Scotch 

 Firs and Larches, as already mentioned. If the ground be damp, the 

 Alder may be substituted for the Mountain Ash. 



It is understood that, on either good land or bad, the forest trees 

 should, in general, he pitted; but, where the ground spades easily, and 

 great care is taken to introduce the plant at the point of the spade, and 

 to avoid curling up its roots, slitting may be permitted ; but these con- 

 siderations are seldom or never sufficiently attended to, even by work- 

 men who esteem themselves experienced in the operation. The Larches 

 and Scotch Firs may always be planted by means of the slit. 



It is further to be observed, that the above hints are very general ; 

 and, in order to be properly understood, they would require a volume of 

 illustration, which is not intended in this place. For example, an 

 experienced planter knows that the Oak will not thrive in very light 

 thin soils. Even a damp soil is more favourable to that plant than one 

 of thin dry sand. And it is ascertained that the Ash will thrive in 

 situations which are either too wet or too dry for the Oak. The 

 Beech is the only tree that resembles the Ash in this particular ; and 

 it will grow on ground too poor, barren, and dry for raising the Ash. 



Further — Of all the plants above-mentioned, the least valuable is the 

 Alder ; but it will grow in absolute bog, where no other plant, the 

 Willow excepted, will live. No plants will be found to cover veri/ poor, 

 thin, light, and mossy land, with so good a prospect of a return to the 

 planter, as Mountain Ash and Birch ; because the wood of the latter 

 is useful in several trades ; and the bark of both sells for one-half the 

 price of Oak bark. 



There are two great objects which every Planter has in view — the 

 one is heautt/, and the other utility, or a return in profit for the money 

 laid out. As the planting, and particularly the enclosing and draining 

 of ground properly for wood, are works of considerable expense, it is 

 important that a landowner should not suff'er himself to be misled by 

 the interested representations of nurserymen and others, who recom- 

 mend various trees of little or no value, in order to get quit of such 

 commodities, when they happen to be upon their hands. 



From the experience of more than five-and-thirty years, in the plant- 



2 K 



