PROCEEDINGS 1841 —1848. 
189 
Mr. Wilson, at the same meeting exhibited a head of a spear which 
had been found 24 feet below the surface, in the valley of the Calder, 
near Fairy's Hill. Mr. James Hammerton, of Hellifield Peel, near 
Skipton, contributed a paper on " Arboriculture." This was a lengthy 
paper, illustrated by several plates exhibiting various structures of 
wood. He was of opinion that in the management of plantations too 
many trees were frequently allowed to grow, which prevented any of 
them arriving at maturity, and his contention was, that by cutting 
out the weaker trees so as to leave plenty of space for those 
which it was intended to become mature, a great advantage accrued 
both in securing good plantations and in the sale of the timber. He 
quoted Mr. Major, of Nostlu-op, in support of his argument. Mr. 
Major said, " I find wherever my profession calls me I observe very 
great and glaring defects in plantations, arising in nine cases out of 
ten from the want of early and judicious thinnings. Xow could we 
persuade persons who have the management of plantations to com- 
mence thinning a few years after planting, and to continue to do so 
once in two or three years as it is necessary, the defects I complain 
of would be prevented, and the object I have in view effectually 
attained. We generally find plantations wholly neglected for the 
space of fifteen or twenty years, sometimes even longer, and that 
though the trees were planted at no greater distance than three or 
four feet from each other : such management must cause the branches 
to decay and fall off, and consequently leave the trees little better 
than naked poles, miserably ill-calculated to form a screen or to 
ornament the surrounding landscape." If trees are planted, and too 
many are kept on the gTound and allowed to stand without any being 
taken away, a mortification of the root takes place, and the whole 
plantation suffers in health and becomes stunted in growth ; and, 
moreover, there is no mode of thinning it afterwards to keep a proper 
crop of trees on the ground. He argues that the increased area which 
is allowed to a tree more than compensates for the removal of the 
others by the much quicker growth it can make, in consequence of 
having a larger area from which the roots may obtain nourishment. 
If trees stand too near to each other they cannot throw out leaves 
sufficient to obtain support from the air ; the tops only being exposed 
