24 
PLANTING FOREST TREES. 
expense was incurred, and no further attention was paid to the 
young trees. In 1813 they were cut down, and yielded ninety tons 
of timber, then worth £4 per ton, giving a round sum of £360, 
which was equal to a rent of £6 10s. during the intervening fifty-five 
years. Can a more convincing proof he given of the facility with 
which a man may secure a forture for his grand-children P 
It is in the family records of a nobleman, in a neighbouring 
country, that about a hundred years ago, seven acres of good corn 
land were planted with Acorns, and that the sale of the underwood 
paid as much as the rent of any seven acres in the district, and that 
when cut down, the timber sold for ten thousand pounds. It would 
be too much to recommend planting upou good lands that are fit for 
♦ 
other kinds of culture, but of its propriety and the profit of it on 
hilly waste lands, there can be no doubt. 
It may be a question as to what kinds of trees are likely to be 
most profitable, where profit is the only object P Much depends upon 
the nature of the soil. On dry lands. Larch gives the fairest pros¬ 
pect of profit, and what is of no little consequence, it has been 
found, that the land under Larch becomes a beautiful and useful her¬ 
bage, where nothing that was profitable grew before they were 
planted. We deeply regret the great inattention evinced by all 
landed proprietors, to the growth of the oak. There was a time 
when our gentry vied in the cultivation of this tree, and when our 
woods were literally filled with it. Why should not the same lauda¬ 
ble predilection now prevail amongst our affluent country gentlemen, 
especially when the superiority of the English oak to that of every 
other country is universally acknowledged P 
In addition to the care of good planting and good forcing to pre¬ 
serve them, all the trees (as recommended in former papers) should 
be annually pruned and thinned, keeping the tops spiral and light. 
If neglected for two years together, great numbers of young trees will 
be injured, and even spoiled, for good saleable timber by heavy 
collateral branches; those should be taken off close to the parent stem 
or trunk, not all at once, so as to injure the appearance of the tree, 
but the largest and stoutest, beginning at the top, so as to improve the 
upright direction of it, give vigour to the leader, and make a 
larger proportion of straight timber. It is to be hoped that the valu¬ 
able hints on this subject will not be lost. 
