CONIFER/E. — THE PINUS, OR PINE TREE. 
79 
in an unbroken line of succession since the 
days of the flood. 
The Scotch pine is always raised from seeds. 
The cones which contain them are gathered 
about Christmas time, after the frost has ope- 
rated upon them so as to change their colour 
to a greyish white, when they are said to be 
ripe ; for if collected when green, they will 
not open without being subjected to a degree 
of heat which would destroy the vegetative 
power of the seeds. The safest way of treat- 
ing the cones is to expose them to the heat of 
the sun ; but where large quantities are re- 
quired this plan is tedious in the extreme. 
Those who collect cones in order to supply 
others with seeds, invariably place the cones 
upon a kiln, and subject them to a gentle fire, 
turning over the cones several times in a day, 
until they have all expanded. A great pro- 
portion of the seeds will fall out, and what 
remain in the cones may be separated from 
them by sifting with a wide sieve. They 
should then be spread about six inches deep 
upon an uneven clay floor, and rubbed with 
the feet until the wings are detached. After 
this they should be subjected to the usual 
cleaning process, as is done with other seeds, 
and kept in a dry loft till required. The time 
for sowing the seeds is the middle of April ; 
and in order to insure a full, close crop, a free 
sandy loam should be selected on which to sow 
them. Many crops of this tree are entirely 
ruined by being sown in soil which gets 
crusted or baked by sunshine, because the 
tender sprouts cannot penetrate through the 
surface usually formed on retentive ground. 
The depth of covering required for these 
seeds is about quarter of an inch ; but on 
particularly light land it may be safely in- 
creased to half an inch. In the seed-beds, 
the plants should remain eighteen months, 
when they should be transplanted (in the 
month of October) into nursery lines nine 
inches apart from each other, and the plants 
in the lines about two inches apart. Nursery- 
men, it is true, place the plants much closer 
than is here recommended, but when so 
treated, they are often found deficient in those 
side branches which are both useful and orna- 
mental, and which give that stochiness so 
requisite to plants when placed in exposed 
situations. They may remain in the lines 
either one or two years, but it will be always 
found advisable to plant them out where they 
are intended to remain the year after they 
have been removed in the nursery, the roots 
being then a thick mass of fine fibres. 
The mode of planting this pine will depend 
entirely upon circumstances. For this tree, 
it is quite impracticable, as it is unnecessary, 
to attempt trenching or ploughing up large 
tracts of waste land, as some arboricultural 
writers have recommended. In all cases, 
where the heath does not exceed five or six 
inches, the plants may be at once inserted 
with a miniature spade, or j)lo<nting iron, as it 
is called, placing the plants at about four feet 
apart from each other. Rank furze, broom, 
&c., must be uprooted ; and in cases where 
the heath is tall, it should be burned a few 
years previous to planting. If the peat soil 
on the surface of the land is more than four 
inches thick, the plants will succeed but indif- 
ferently. It is, therefore, advisable that a 
labourer, with a mattock, should precede the 
planter, skimming off the peat with one end ; 
and bringing up the subsoil with the other. 
The best time to plant the Scotch pine is in 
the month of September, because then the 
young trees furnish themselves with roots in 
their new situation before the winter comes 
on. This fact admits of no dispute. 
The after management of a pine wood is 
one of the nicest operations which the forester 
has to think of. On the one hand, you have 
the delicately organized structure, beautifully 
furnished on all sides with branches and leaves, 
which are the life agents of the tree. On the 
other hand, you know that the timber-mer- 
chant cares not for branches, and that he must 
have a clear, clean, trunk. The plan, there- 
fore, is to plant the trees so close to one an- 
other that their proximity will discourage and 
prevent any strong lateral branches, whilst the 
removal of the weak ones can have no hurtful 
effect upon the timber. Yet, again, air and 
light must be admitted to the boles, else the 
wood will be soft and spongy. Such are the 
considerations to which the attention of every 
enlightened planter should be directed. 
The age at which the Scotch pine should be 
felled will be best determined by the nature of 
the soil on which it grows. If exceedingly 
poor, and retentive of water, the trees will 
attain their largest size in twenty-five years. 
This species of soil, which is indicated by a 
very thin crust of peat on a layer of red sand, 
or iron stone, and bearing only sickly patches 
of heath, with here and there pools of water, 
will not bear wood profitably of a greater age 
than stated above. On good land, such as 
valleys and slopes of hills, where the roots 
have free access to the subsoil, the tree will 
attain maturity in fifty years. On very ex- 
posed situations, again, such as the tops of 
mountains, and what are called barren tracts, 
freely exposed on all hands, and which are the 
proper seats for this pine, the tree is reckoned 
to require about seventy years of age to 
mature its timber. It is impossible, however, 
to lay down rules which will reach every situ- 
ation and climate, and much must be left to 
the discernment of those who may have the 
charge of forests. Girting the stems will, 
