AGRICULTURE. 
is consequently delayed in its progress to- 
wards maturity, often cannot be gathered 
in proper condition, and, sometimes, is com- 
pletely ruined. These considerations will 
generally be sufficient to decide the ques- 
tion of planting timber trees in particular 
situations. Where the practice is thought 
judicious with a view to the melioration of 
the soil, the larch, which is the quickest 
grpwer, and the most valuable of all the 
resinous trees, will be entitled to a prefer- 
ence. The most barren ground will answer 
all its demands for nourishment. For oak, 
better lands are indispensable. Beech trees 
under the protection of Scotch firs, pre- 
viously planted for their shelter, will lay 
hold, eventually, even of a soil which pos- 
sesses neither clay nor loam, and thrive so 
rapidly as to require, in a short period, that 
the firs should be cut down to afford freer 
air and ramification. 
The use of small plantations of timber on 
large estates is very considerable. A vast 
quantity of posts, spars, and rafters, for build- 
ings of every description on the farm, is per- 
petually called for in such circumstances, 
and will thus be fully supplied on the spot ; 
whereas the want of it is attended with ex- 
treme expense and inconvenience. Plant- 
ing should commence in October, and may 
be continued till April, excepting during 
frost. Injuries from cattle must be effectu- 
ally guarded against in plantations, in their 
infant stage, which are as easily ruined as 
fields of corn. The fences, therefore, should 
be kept in the best possible repair. 
With respect to coppices the caution 
about cattle is equally necessary. When 
coppices have attained the age of fourteen 
years, they may, generally speaking, be cut 
down more profitably than at any other 
age ; and the most advantageous method after 
this, is to sort out the wood for appropriate 
purposes, whether for fuel, hoops, or hop 
poles ; which arrangement will, in almost 
all cases furnishing such varieties, abun- 
dantly compensate for the time taken up 
in making it. In some situations, as in 
Surry for stakes and edders, in Gloucester- 
shire for cordwood, in Yorkshire for railing, 
these articles yield a considerable advantage ; 
and as they are sure of a market within a 
small distance, which with respect to the 
carriage of so bulky a commodity, is a point 
of the first consequence, an annual fall of 
wood applicable to these purposes may be 
desirable. The ground appropriated for 
its growth should be divided into that num- 
ber of sowings or plantations, which will 
equal the number of years intended for their 
growth before cutting. The management 
will thus be easy as well as profitable, and 
fall naturally, without agitation and embar- 
rassment, into the regular business of the 
year. These plantations may be sown either 
in October or March. The land being in 
good order, it should be sown with corn or 
pulse, appropriate to the season and the soil, 
after which the tree seeds should be put 
across the land in drills. Acorns and nuts 
must be dibbled, and the key berries scat- 
tered in trenches, drawn by the hoe, at four 
feet distance. Osiers may often be culti- 
vated to great advantage, yielding a profit 
in the second, or at least in the third year ; 
while a coppice requires 1 b or 20, and an 
oak a 100 years to attain to its maturity. 
CATTLE. 
A considerable part of the stock of a far- 
mer must always consist of cattle / and the 
maintenance and management of these, 
therefore, must ever be an object of great 
consequence ; and in proportion to the num- 
ber of them which he keeps for sale, in 
addition to those which he employs on ac- 
count of their immediate service and labour, 
the importance of the subject is increased 
to him. Whether, in the latter point of 
view, oxen or horses are more advantageous 
has been a long agitated question. In situ- 
ations in which there is a breed of cattle 
particularly adapted to work, and such situ- 
ations do occur, the employment of the ox 
may probably be most beneficial. And 
when a farm is of so great extent that a 
considerable number of beasts may be an- 
nually bought at a small expense, and no 
inconvenience may be incurred by turning 
out those to fatten which are ill qualified 
for labour, the same preference may be 
wisely made. Bulls are on some accounts 
to be preferred to oxen, being procured at 
a cheaper rate, and more active and perse- 
vering in labour. In other cases than those 
just mentioned the question will be decided 
differently. The activity of the horse is 
extremely superior to that of oxen, and it 
is more applicable to different species of 
employment. Its hoof is less susceptible 
of injury ; and, with respect to well managed 
forms, in which dispatch is more required 
than absolute strength in the operation of 
ploughing, the quickness with which the 
horse completes the business in comparison 
with the ox, will, it may be presumed, at 
length generally diffuse that preference of 
the one to the other, which is obviously in- 
