PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
181 
Thus far has the improver been particularly directed how to manage and order 
his Firr Trees, from the time of his gathering the cones untill he has them secur’d 
in his grove or walk. He may now be pleas’d to observe:— 
That tho’ some have planted out their Firrs at Michaelmas, with their other for- 
rest trees, and that with good success, yet the spring is hereby advised as the better 
and more proper season ; and that, not only because it may be judg’d the most 
natural time for transplanting—as certainly it is for sowing the seed—but that 
those set in spring will thrive as well, if not better, and the planter eas’d of a great 
deal of trouble, which attends their being set out at Michaelmas, especially if any¬ 
thing large, and without shelter ; because, their heads being charged with such a 
load of sappy green leaves all the winter, and the stem or stalk so very plyant and 
soft, they are shaken about and tost with every gust of wind; this must create the 
greater charge and trouble, by constant earthing and tending, or staking, as some 
do, in order to secure them all the winter season; whereas, by removing in the 
spring, all the winter and March winds are then over, and they have time given 
them all summer to strengthen, and secure themselves by the roots, making new 
shoots, and fixing themselves in the ground, where, the soil too being settled and 
bound together hy the roots of grass and weeds, the winds or frosts can’t have the 
same ill effects over them. They will, indeed, require the more watering when set 
out in the spring, and the roots would be better to have some smal stones or other 
the like rubbish thrown or spread over them, otherwise, thro’ the looseness of the 
earth for some time, they may be prejudiced by the too great heat of the sun¬ 
beams. 
It may be set down for a rule, to remove the Firr at what time in the spring its 
little heads or buds begin to look red or swell (provided the weather favour), which 
may be don safely enough untill these heads have shot out an inch or two; and this 
without having any regard to the aspect or position it stood formerly in, as some 
direct and observe. 
Tho’ the Firr generally sends forth shootes or branches from one to two foot 
yearly, yet, upon removeal, it may, perhaps, set out the first year not over two or 
three inches; the second year (it may be; less again, and continue thus under a 
check a season or two more ; however, if it keeps its right deep green colour, it will 
do well enough; but if it take a yellowish faint green cast, and that a black mould, 
or scale, appears above the setting of the leaves, it betokens it sickly and declining; 
insomuch that it’s to be fear’d the planter must be forc’d to take all such trees up 
and plant fresh ones in their places. For this reason, and to answer other casual¬ 
ties, it would be convenient to leave eight or ten of each hundred standing in the 
nursery, to supply the places of such as thus miscarry abroad. 
The Firr will bear very well with removing at six, eight, or ten foot high; at what 
time it must be pruned so high as that only two or three tires, or years’ growth, of 
the boughs be left on. A tree of only three or four foot high need have only one 
sett of branches left on. The less head it has at setting out, the less lyable it is to 
the winds, which are the greatest enemy the Firr Tree has. This, among other 
inconveniencies, makes the bryers and thorns very ill neighbours to the Firr; they, 
upon every agitation, fretting and rubbing off the bark. But to remedy this again, 
its turpentine juice has such a healing vertue that it never suffers the tree to canker, 
either by this or other disasters, as most trees are apt to do. 
If the Firr looseth its green head it will never shoot out again, as other forrest 
trees generally do, when poll’d or deprived of their branches ; neither doth it send 
forth succours from root or stem. 
The Firr takes such regular shoots every year that, by counting them, one may 
give a pretty just guess of how many years old the tree may be. 
It hath not yet been found (tho’ try’dby severall) that this Firr will grow by slips, 
as the spruce Firr will do. 
The season for pruning the Firr is from Christmas to March, or any other time 
when the sapp is not stirring; but if at any time there should be a necessity of 
lopping off any boughs while the sapp is up, let them be cut off at two or three 
inches distance from the body of the tree; but, then, what is now left must be 
pruned away the next winter, or season of pruning. But what height the tree is 
to be pruned to, as it grows larger, must be according to the intent of the planter ; 
