PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
183 
thirty years old, measure to be about forty-five foot high, and fifteen or sixteen 
inches diameter in the stemm, two or three foot above the root, those in a grove or 
thickett, of but about twenty-seven years’ standing, measure to fifty foot high, and 
from nine to twelve inches thick in the bole or body of the trees. This fitts them 
for different ends and uses, and is not improper to be hinted to the improver, who 
(if he pleases) may lay it down for a rule, to proportion the number of his Firrs to 
be sett in groves or thicketts, to that of other forrest trees, as nine is to five, or as 
the quincunx to the double square (if it be proper to term it so) ; which, to those 
who have but little ground to improve, and would lay that out to the best advan¬ 
tage, is another argument why they should propagate Firrs rather than other for¬ 
rest trees. 
And now to close up all: it may be pertinently enough objected, why we should 
be tyed up to, and troubled with, so many directions, &c., about the planting so 
hardy a tree, whose seed, too, of themselves take and grow so well upon the most 
cold and barren places in Europe? To which the chiefest answer that can be given 
is, experience; for should we commit our Firr seed to the earth without any further 
care or attendance about it, we should certainly have but a very sad account of it 
at the year’s end; and that occasion’d mostly, either for want of water, being 
choaked with the weeds or grass all summer long, or thrown up and perisht by the 
frosts the succeeding winter; all which evills seem to be prevented or remedyed 
when growing in barren and mountainous places, by the snows that fall constantly 
every year upon those high mountains, which covers and preserves them all winter 
long from the frost and sharp winter winds, and by its thawing moisten and keep 
them cool all the summer; and for the weeds, we know too well how they like our 
richest, best soyles, so as not to ascend those cold, blake places. And, moreover, 
it’s very probable that not one seed of a hundred (perhaps, not of a thousand) of 
those shed upon those rocky mountains, grows or comes to perfection; whereas, we 
have the satisfaction to find that, where the seed and soyle agree and are rightly 
manag’d, not one in ten will fail us. 
SPRUCE FIRR. 
What hath all this while been said in relation to the Scotch, Irish, or common 
Firr (all which are reckon’d to be the same), may, in every particular, be apply’d to 
the spruce Firr; which, from the experience had of it hitherto, seems to take and 
agree very well with this our soyl and climate. 
What may be added further is, that the cones of the spruce Firr, being softer, the 
seed is more easily procur’d ; and by quartering of them with a knife (beginning at 
the thicker end), and so pick out the seed. 
The spruce Firr will grow from slips of the tree, set in the ground like rosemary, 
and that in the beginning of the spring, when the little eyes or buds of the tree 
begin to grow proud, or break forth ; but one tree rais’d from the seed will grow 
more in five years than one of these in tenn. 
It shews very well in potts when young, and sett out among other greens ; or, 
if placed^ in the midle of a flower knot, or the like, it will cut into any shape 
(almost), and shew for some time as well as either cypress, yew, or holly; but 
when it arrives to sixteen or twenty years of age it begins to loose its beauty, 
by the lower boughs decaying, and leaves dropping off. 
They seem to agree better with removing than the common Firr, and resist, 
likewise, all shocks of wind, so as there’s not half the trouble with them as with 
the others, upon, and after setting out, occasion’d by their leaves being so much 
smaller, and their wood so much firmer and stronger; but, then, again, they 
don’t grow to that bulk in so short a time, nor so easily take up with so or¬ 
dinary a soyl. 
PINASTER. 
The pinaster, or Virginia pine, claims a place in our improvements, being a 
noble, stately tree. It takes very well with our soyl, and grows to a considerable 
height and thickness, and that in as short a time as the common Firr, but not 
generally so streight. It’s to be propagated by the like ordering and manage¬ 
ment, only that it seems more impatient of a removeal; which, therefore, must 
be don the sooner. 
