184 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
It also proves a more brickie wood than either of the other sorts, the boughs 
and topps being frequently snapt of, and broken by the winds. 
As for the silver Firr, domestick pine, or what other sorts there are of either 
kind, there are but few of them yet propagated in this kingdom ; and those so 
lately, that it’s presumed none, from their own experience, can warrant the suc¬ 
cess of them, or give us reason to believe they are understood by the Firr men¬ 
tion’d in the Act for Improving of Forrest Trees. 
POSTSCRIPT. 
I should derogate very much from my intentions in setting forth this Treatise of 
Firr Trees, if I did not give the curious improver the thoughts of a very observing 
and judicious gentleman upon this subject, in a letter to his friend, who had desir’d 
his opinion and remarks upon the foregoing Treatise, which are to the purpose 
following:— 
Sr. — I have perus’d and return’d you (with a great many thanks) the inclosed 
Treatise of Firr Trees, and reckon it no smal compliment that you were pleas’d to 
set a value upon my judgement therein ; what, therefore, I shall offer, in obedience 
to your commands, is no way in contradiction to what is so well collected and 
design’d for the information of our fellow-planters (for I freely own to have re¬ 
ceived several hints by it, which I knew not before), but to acquaint you with the 
method that I take in sowing the Firr seed, differing, in some respect, from what is 
sett down in that treatise, in relation to the demensions of the seed-bed ; for 
whereas, the bed for receiving an ounce of Firr seed is thereby directed to be nine 
or ten yards long, I make mine but so many feet; it’s true, the seed sown my way 
come up so very thick they would be good for little if I did not remove them into 
the nursery the very next year, where I set them at two foot distance one way, and 
one the other. The advantage I have by sowing them so thick I reckon to be this 
(vizt.), that by standing so close, the little roots and fibers are so interwoven and 
matted together that the violent frosts can’t heave or lift any of them out of the 
ground; and, moreover, the little green heads keep one another so warm that I 
never cover them in the winter. 
It’s justly observ’d, that the Firr takes up but little room ; and I find a scheme 
proposed therein for the distance they ought to stand at in proportion to that of other 
forrest trees. I could wish the way of setting them out by the equilateral triangle 
had been likewise added, it yielding a greater variety of rows, or prospects, where 
each tree appears to stand in the center of a circle, in whose periphery stand six 
others that are equidistant, and form a regular hexagon. But the greatest ad¬ 
vantage gain’d by planting trees after this manner is, that a plantation acre will 
hold, at tenn foot asunder, near a hundred trees more than if set the quincunx 
way it will contain, tho’ they stand at the same distance. This, upon first 
thoughts, may seem a paradox; but after a little consideration, nothing appears 
more obvious. 
I think it now high time to begg your pardon for entertaining you so long upon 
a subject which you (your selfe) so very well understand, and remain, sr., &c. 
