PLANTING FOREST TIMBER. 
791 
trunks of those which have annually felt a judicious application of 
the pruning knife. The part of the tree in the former case, which 
can be sawn out as useful timber, is not, perhaps, above three feet in 
length, whilst the stem of the latter, has been trained to the height 
of fourteen, twenty, or thirty feet. It is in vain to contradict these 
facts, by an appeal to nature! Nature is equally favourable to all 
her productions; it is the same to her, whether the oak produces 
timber or boughs, and whether the field produces grain or trees. 
Human skill and art avail themselves of the operations of nature, 
by encouraging and directing them towards such results as are most 
useful to mankind. When we see nature raise a field of wheat, we 
may expect her to produce a whole forest of clear, straight, profita¬ 
ble timber, but till then we must be content to employ plough and 
harrow, in the one case, and hatchet and pruning-knife in the other. 
Timely thinning and pruning repeated from year to year, as occa¬ 
sion requires, effectually prevents the loss of hopes, plants and la¬ 
bour. 
A Mountaineer. 
(To be continued in our next.) 
ARTICLE XIV. 
ON PLANTING FOREST TIMBER.— By Mr. Howden. 
By your observations made in page 513, I see you are using exer¬ 
tions towards the establishment of an Arboriculture Society in Eng¬ 
land ; such a society is indeed very much wanted, I shall be most 
happy, to lend a helping hand to the work. 
If only twenty practical men would unite, to write down their ex¬ 
perience, and various experiments, so as to form an annual volume, 
the work would be sure to sell, and knowledge would thus be in¬ 
creased. I should not, however, recommend the owners of land to 
plant forest trees on lands fit for cultivation. In this Island, timber 
can be imported cheaper than it can be grown on such lands, but on 
hills and glens, the pine and oak will pay for planting; also, “ belts 
and squares of oaks and firs” planted for the purpose of shelter will 
answer very well; but we must procure our best timber from coun¬ 
tries not subject to rents, &c. I am now selling scotch fir, at one 
shilling and sixpence per cubic loot, and importing the same species 
from Sweden, at three shillings per foot; but then my trees are little 
