The most common American pine, with yellow timber, Pinus strobus, has

been introduced for a long time back into Britain, it is said first by

the Earl of Weymouth, thence sometimes named Weymouth Pine. This rather

elegant tree requires a warm sheltered situation, as it is easily torn

down by wind, from the weakness of the timber, which is inferior in

hardness and strength to any other pine we are acquainted with; and

from its slender needle leaf not having substance to withstand the

evaporation of much exposure. Altogether, the kind appears rather out

of climate in Britain, and, though the monarch of the pines in Canada,

holds here but a very subordinate place. Although extremely tender and

light, the matured timber does not soon decay when cut out thin and

exposed to wind and weather, nor worm when kept dry in houses; but when

employed in shipbuilding,—remaining always between the moist {72} and

dry, the condition most favourable to putrefaction, and surrounded by

a close, warm, putrid atmosphere,—it very soon, especially in masses,

becomes corrupted. It requires more time to season or dry in the

deal than any other wood, owing to the fineness of fibre, smallness

of pores, and want of density. From this quality of parting with its

moisture with extreme slowness, it forms convenient deck-planking for

vessels on tropical stations, or when employed in carriage of unslacked

lime, as the plank does not readily shrink and become leaky under the

great evaporation occasioned by the heat and arid air. Yellow pine has

generally about 40 growths of sap-wood.

We have had no acquaintance with American pitch pine as a growing tree.

As a timber, it is superior in several respects to all the others,

having a great deal more resinous matter, so much, as often to render

it semitranslucent. It is strong and weighty, and is used as a naval

timber for most of the purposes to which other pine timber is applied.

It forms the very best bottom planking. The shipwrights of the docks

at Devonport will attest its quality, as the bottom planking of the

Gibraltar of 80 guns: this vessel carried home to England from the

Mediterranean, a piece of coral rock of about ten tons weight sticking

in her bottom, her preservation {73} in all probability resulting from

the adhesive quality of this timber. Its great weight is, however,

a considerable inconveniency attending its use as spars, and the

abundance of resin, we should think, would unfit it for tree-nails;

resinous tree-nails,—probably from some derangement of the structure

or disposition to chemical change produced in the resin by the very

great pressure of the hard driving,—soon corrupting and infecting the

adjacent wood. In some cases we have also known very resinous Baltic

plank decay soon in vessels. The pitch pine, from the quantity of

resin, contracts little in drying, at least for a long time, till the

resin itself begins to dry up. It forms the best house-floors we have

seen, being strong and durable, continuing close at joinings, and the

fibre not readily taking in moisture when washed.

Our red-wood pine, when come to some age, is in wet ground attacked

by rot, which commences in the bulb and adjacent roots and stem, in a

manner very similar to the rot in larch. The red-wood also approaches

nearer to the outside where this rot exists, and on the side of the

tree where the rot is greatest. Most of our planted red pine forest,

especially in poor wet tills, and in all flat sandy moorish ground of

close subsoil, fall by decay at from 30 to 60 years old. This decay is

gradual, owing to the {74} difference in strength of constitution of

the individuals. Closeness of rearing and consequent tall nakedness of

stem, and disproportion of leaves to stem, would alone induce this in

a few years longer even in good soil, excepting perhaps in protected

narrow dells; but the decay commences much sooner when the soil is

unfavourable, and is no doubt accelerated by the mode of extracting

the seeds by kiln-drying the cones, and by using a weak variety of the

plant. The approach of this decay may often be noticed, several years

previous, in the saw-cross section of the stem mid-way up the tree—an

irregular portion of the section appearing of a different shade, from

breaking off free and irregular before the teeth of the saw, and not

having so much fibrous cover as the healthy part. When Scots fir rises

naturally, it is not nearly so subject to this decay even in very

inferior soils: the plants having generally much more room from the

first, do not rise so tall, have more branch in proportion to stem,

thence are more vigorous. The cones not being injured by kiln-drying,

may also account for this.

The fact that the red pine in Scotland has fewer sap-wood layers than

the red pine of Memel or of North America, and also the fact that, in

most situations in Scotland, the red pine soon {75} decays—soonest

in the places where the trees have fewest sap-wood layers, and where

the timber has been planted, that is, where the cones have been

kiln-dried—is worthy of notice. Scots red pine has generally from 15

to 40 layers, Memel from 40 to 50, Canadian often 100. We consider the

long moist open winter and cold ungenial spring in Scotland, and the

till bottoms soaking with water, perhaps aided by the transplanting,

and the kiln-drying of the cones, to be the cause of this early loss

of vitality or change of sap-wood into matured. In Poland and Prussia,

the earth does not remain so long cold and moist as in Scotland, but

is either frozen or sufficiently warm and dry;—this occurs even to a

greater degree in Canada[16], and neither the Memel nor Canadian have

any chance of being planted or kiln-dried.

WHITE LARCH—_Larix communis_, (_L. pyramidalis_).

White Larch is a timber tree combining so many advantages, its

properties so imperfectly known, of {76} so recent introduction,

and of such general culture, (about 10,000,000 plants being sold

annually from the nurseries of the valley of the Tay alone), that any

accurate notice of its history, its habitudes, and uses, must possess

an interest sufficient to arrest the attention of every one, from the

statesman and economist down to the mere lord and the squire. We shall

therefore devote to it a little more of our attention than we have

bestowed on those already treated of.

Larch is scattered over a considerable part of the northern hemisphere,

inhabiting nearly the same regions with the other Coniferæ. White

larch, the kind[17] common in Britain, is found growing extensively on

the alpine districts of the south of Europe, in Italy, Switzerland,

Sardinia; this may be termed the European temperate species. Another,

native to the country around Archangel, and extending from {77} Norway

eastward through Russia and Siberia, of inferior size, may be styled

the European Hyperborean. North America, like the old world, is said to

possess a temperate and hyperborean species. The first, Black Larch (L.

pendula), more generally extending along the longitudinal parallel of

the United States; the other, Red Larch (L. microcarpa), along that of

Lower Canada and Labrador. We have seen the American temperate attain

18 inches in diameter in Scotland, but it is much inferior in figure

and growth, and also cleanness of timber, to the Appenine or European

temperate, being covered with knots and protuberances. Though rough,

the timber is said to be of excellent quality.

It is now upwards of 80 years since the larch, so common in Britain,

was brought from the Appenines to Strath-Tay. The rapidity of its

growth and striking novelty of appearance, assisted by the influence of

the family of Athole (to a female of which some say we owe its first

introduction), soon attracted general attention: it quickly spread over

the neighbouring country, and was planted in every variety of soil

and situation, from the unfitness of which, in most places of the low

country, it is already fast decaying. About 40 years ago it began to

be planted in many parts of Britain. It is now introduced into almost

every new plantation in the two islands, and {78} the space of country

covered by its shade is extending with a rapidity unparalleled in the

history of any other ligneous plant.

Larch is generally conceived to be an alpine[18] plant, and its decay

in the low country attributed to situation or climate. This idea

seems to have arisen from its locality in Italy, and from observing

it succeed so well in our alpine districts, not taking into account

that the soil is different,—that it may be the soil of these districts

which conduces to the prosperity of the larch, and not the altitude.

Throughout Scotland, wherever we have observed the decay, it appeared

to have resulted almost solely from unsuitableness of soil. We have

witnessed it as much diseased on our highest trap hills, 1000 feet

in altitude, as on a similar soil at the base. Yet the freeness from

putrescency or miasma of the pure air of the mountain, {79} and

deficiency of putrescent matter in the ground, or other more obscure

agencies connected with primitive ranges, may have some influence to

counterbalance unsuitableness of soil. It is not probable that the

coolness and moisture of altitude would be necessary in Scotland to the

healthy growth of a vegetable which flourishes under Italian suns, on

the general level of the Appenine and on the Sardinian hills.

The rot, so general in growing larch, though sometimes originating in

the bulb or lower part of the stem, seems to have its commencement

most frequently in the roots. Thence the corruption proceeds upwards

along the connecting tubes or fibres into the bulb, and gradually

mounts the stem, which, when much diseased, swells considerably

for a few feet above the ground, evidently from the new layers of

sap-wood forming thicker to afford necessary space for the fluids to

pass upward and downward—the matured wood through which there is no

circulation approaching at this place within one or two annual layers

of the outside. In a majority of cases, the rot commences in the

roots which have struck down deepest into the earth, especially those

under the stool; these having been thrown to a considerable depth by

the young plant, as the tree enlarges, are shut out from aëration,

&c. by the {80} superior increasing stool and hard-pressed earth

underneath it; this earth at the same time becoming exhausted of the

particular pabulum of the plant. It is, therefore, quite probable, from

these parts of the roots being the weakest, that they will be most

susceptible of injury from being soaked in stagnant water in the flat

tills[19], starved during droughts in light sand, tainted by the putrid

vapours of rich vegetable mould, or poisoned by the corrosive action

of pernicious minerals. It may also be supposed that these smothered

sickly roots, not possessing sufficient power or means of suction

(endosmose), will be left out in the general economy of vegetation of

the plant, thence lose vitality, and become corrupt. But this affords

no explanation why the larch roots, under these circumstances, are more

liable to corruption than those of other trees, or how the bulb itself

should become contaminated. {81}

We have cut off the top, where the diameter of the section was about

three inches, from sound young larch trees, and found a similar rot

proceed downwards in a few months from the section, as rises from the

diseased roots in improper soil. There is something favourable to the

quick progress of this rot in the motion of the sap, or vitality of the

tree; as, under no common circumstances, would the wood of a cut larch

tree become tainted in so short a time.

The rot, though most general in trees which are chilled in wet cold

tills, or starved in dry sand, or sickly from any other cause, is also

often found to take place in the most luxuriant growing plants in open

situations, branched to the ground, and growing in deep soil free

from stagnating water. There must, therefore, be some constitutional

tendency to corruption in the larch, which is excited by a combination

of circumstances; and we must limit our knowledge for the present

to the fact, that certain soils, perhaps slightly modified by other

circumstances, produce sound, and others unsound larch, without

admitting any general influence from altitude, excepting in so far as

its antiseptic influence may go.

The fitness of soil for larch seems to depend more especially upon

the ability the soil possesses of affording an equable supply of

moisture; that is, upon its {82} mechanical division, or its powers of

absorption or retention of moisture; and its chemical composition would

seem only efficacious as conducive to this.

Soils and subsoils[20] may be divided into two classes. The first,

where larch will acquire a size of from 30 to 300 solid feet, and is

generally free of rot; the second, where it reaches only from 6 to 20

feet solid, and in most cases becomes tainted with rot before 30 years

of age.

CLASS I. SOILS AND SUBSOILS FOR LARCH.

_Sound rock, with a covering of firm loam, particularly when the rock

is jagged or cloven, or much dirupted and mixed with the earth._—In

such cases, a very slight covering or admixture of earth will suffice.

We would give the preference to primitive rock, especially micaceous

schist and mountain limestone. Larch seldom succeeds well on sandstone

or on trap, except on steep slopes, where the rock is quite sound and

the soil firm. {83}

Fully the one half of Scotland, comprehending nearly all the alpine

part, consists of primary rock, chiefly micaceous schist and gneiss.

These rocks are generally less decayed at the surface, better

drained, and fuller of clefts and fissures containing excellent earth

(especially on slopes), into which the roots of trees penetrate and

receive healthy nourishment, than the other primitive and transition

rocks, granite, porphyry, trap, or the secondary and tertiary

formations of nearly horizontal strata, red and white sandstone, &c.

Primary strata are generally well adapted for larch, except where

the surface has acquired a covering of peat-moss, or received a flat

diluvial bed of close wet till or soft moorish sand, or occupies a too

elevated or exposed situation—the two latter exceptions only preventing

the growth, not inducing rot.

_Gravel_, not too ferruginous, and in which water does not stagnate in

winter, even though nearly bare of vegetable mould, especially on steep

slopes, and where the air is not too arid, is favourable to the growth

of larch. It seems to prefer the coarser gravel, though many of the

stones exceed a yard solid.

The straths or valleys of our larger rivers, in their passage through

the alpine country, are generally {84} occupied, for several hundred

feet of perpendicular altitude up the slope, by gravel, which covers

the primitive strata to considerable depth, especially in the eddies of

the salient angles of the hill. Every description of tree grows more

luxuriantly here than in any other situation of the country; the causes

of this are, _1st_, The open bottom allowing the roots to penetrate

deep, without being injured by stagnant moisture; _2d_, The percolation

of water down through the gravel from the superior hill; _3d_, The

dryness of the surface not producing cold by evaporation, thence the

ground soon heating in the spring; _4th_, The moist air of the hill

refreshing and nourishing the plant during the summer heats, and

compensating for the dryness of the soil; _5th_, The reverberating of

the sun’s rays, between the sides of the narrow valley, thus rendering

the soil comparatively warmer than the incumbent air, which is cooled

by the oblique currents of the higher strata of air, occasioned by the

unequal surface of the ground. This comparatively greater warmth of the

ground, when aided by moisture, either in the soil or atmosphere, is

greatly conducive to the luxuriancy of vegetation.

_Firm dry clays and sound brown loam._—Soils well adapted for wheat and

red clover, not too rich, {85} and which will bear cattle in winter,

are generally congenial to the larch.

_All very rough ground, particularly ravines, where the soil is

neither soft sand nor too wet; also the sides of the channels of

rapid rivulets._—The roots of most trees luxuriate in living or

flowing water; and, where it is of salubrious quality, especially when

containing a slight solution of lime, will throw themselves out a

considerable distance under the stream. The reason why steep slopes,

and hills whose strata are nearly perpendicular to the horizon, are so

much affected by larch and other trees, is, because the moisture in

such situations is in motion, and often continues dripping through the

fissures throughout the whole summer. The desideratum of situation for

larch, is where the roots will neither be drowned in stagnant water in

winter, nor parched by drought in summer, and where the soil is free

from any corrosive mineral or corrupting mouldiness.

Larch, in suitable soil, sixty years planted, and seasonably thinned,

will have produced double the value of what almost any other timber

would have done; and from its general adaptation both for sea and land

purposes, it will always command a ready sale.

{86} CLASS II. SOILS AND SUBSOILS WHERE LARCH TAKES DRY ROT.

_Situations (steep slopes excepted) with cold till subsoil, nearly

impervious to water._—The larch succeeds worst when moorish dead

sand alone, or with admixture of peat, occupies the surface of these

retentive bottoms. Where the whole soil and subsoil is one uniform,

retentive, firm till, it will often reach considerable size before

being attacked by the rot. When this heavy till occupies a steep slope,

the larch will sometimes succeed well, owing to the more equable supply

of moisture, and the water in the soil not stagnating, but gliding down

the declivity.

In general, soils whose surface assumes the appearance of honeycomb

in time of frost, owing to the great quantity of water imbibed by

the soil, will not produce large sound larch. More than half the low

country of Scotland is soil of this description.

_Soft sand soil and subsoil._—Sand is still less adapted for growing

larch than the tills, the plants being often destroyed by the summer’s

drought before they attain size for any useful purpose: the rot also

attacks earlier here than in the tills. It appears that {87} light

sand, sloping considerably on moist back-lying alpine situations,

covered towards the south by steep hill, will sometimes produce

sound larch; whereas did the same sand occupy a dry front or lowland

situation, the larch would not succeed in it. The same moist back

situation that conduces to produce sound larch in light dry soils, may

probably tend to promote rot in the wet. The moisture and the less

evaporation of altitude diminishing the tendency to rot in dry light

sand, and increasing it in wet till. Larch will sometimes succeed well

in sharp dry alluvial sand left by rivulets.

_Soils incumbent on brittle dry trap, or broken slaty

sandstone._—Although soil, the debris of trap, be generally much better

adapted for the production of herbaceous vegetables than that of

sandstone or freestone, yet larch does not seem to succeed much better

on the former than the latter. The deeper superior soils, generally

incumbent on the recent dark red sandstone, are better suited for larch

than the shallow inferior soils incumbent on the old grey and red

sandstone.

_Ground having a subsoil of dry rotten rock, and which sounds hollow to

the foot in time of drought._

_Rich deaf earth, or vegetable {88} mould._—Independently of receiving

ultimate contamination from the putrid juices or exhalations of this

soil, the larch does not seem, even while remaining sound, to make so

much comparative progress of growth, as some of the hard wood trees, as

elm, ash, plane.

_Black or grey moorish soils, with admixture of peat-moss._

Although the soils specified in this class will not afford fine large

larch for naval use, yet they may be very profitably employed in

growing larch for farming purposes, or for coal-mines, where a slight

taint of rot is of minor importance. The lightness of larch, especially

when new cut (about one-third less weight than the evergreen coniferæ),

gives a facility to the loading and carriage, which enhances its value,

independent of its greater strength and durability. Those larches in

which rot has commenced, are fully as suitable for paling as the sound:

they have fewer circles of sap-wood, and more of red or matured. When

the rot has commenced, the maturing or reddening of the circles does

not proceed regularly, reaching nearest the bark on the side where the

rot has advanced farthest.

A great amelioration of our climate and of our soil, and considerable

addition to the beauty and salubrity of the country, might be

attained by {89} landholders of skill and spirit, did they carry

off the noxious moisture, by sufficient use of open drainage, from

their extensive wastes of mossy moors and wet tills, which are only

productive of the black heath, the most dismal robe[21] of the

earth, or rather the funeral pall with which Nature has shrouded her

undecayed remains. This miserable portion of our country, so dreary

when spread out in wide continuous flats, and so offensive to the eye

of the traveller, unless his mind is attuned to gloom and desolation,

lies a disgrace to the possessor. Were a proper system of superficial

draining executed on these districts, and kept in repair, most of our

conifers, particularly spruce and Scots fir, with oak, beech, birch,

alder, and, in the sounder situations, larch, would thrive and come to

maturity, ultimately enhancing the value of the district an hundred

fold. This could be done by fluting the ground, opening large ditches

every 30, 50, or 100 yards, according to the wetness or closeness of

the subsoil—the deeper, the more serviceable both in efficacy and

distance of drainage. These flutes should stretch across the slope with

just sufficient declivity to allow the {90} water to flow off easily,

The excavated matter should be thrown to the lower side; and when the

whole, or any part, of the excavation consists of earth or gravel, it

ought to be spread over the whole mossy surface, whether the field

be morass or drier hill-peat: this would be useful in consolidating

it, and in preventing too great exhaustion of moisture in severe

droughts, from which vegetation in moss-soil suffers so much. Even

though planting were not intended, this fluting and top-dressing would

facilitate the raising of the gramineæ. These ditches, when the ground

is not too stoney, or too moist, or containing roots, might be scooped

out, excepting a little help at the bottom, by means of a scoop-sledge,

or levelling box, worked by a man and two horses, the surface being

always loosened by the common plough: one of these will remove earth as

fast as twenty men with wheelbarrows.

ON BENDING AND KNEEING LARCH.

We cannot too forcibly inculcate the urgent necessity of attending to

the bending of the larch: for our country’s interest, we almost regret

we cannot compel it. In all larch plantations, in proper {91} soil,

not too far advanced, and in all that may hereafter be planted, a

proportion of those intended to remain as standards should be bended.

The most proper time for this would perhaps be May or June, before the

top-growth commences, or has advanced far; the best size is from three

feet high and upwards. The plants should be bent the first season to an

angle of from 40° to 60° with the horizon, and the next brought down

to from 10° to 60°, according to the size of the plant, or the curve

required,—the smallest plants to the lowest angle.

From experience we find that the roots of larch form the best of all

knees; they, however, might be much improved by culture[22], although

it does not {92} seem as yet to have been attempted or thought of. To

form the roots properly into knees, should the plants be pretty large,

the planter ought to select those plants which have four main roots

springing out nearly at right angles, the regularity of which he may

improve a little by pruning, and plant them out as standards in the

thinnest dryest soil suited for larch, carefully spreading the roots to

equal distances and in a horizontal position. To promote the regular

square diverging of these four roots, he should dig narrow ruts about

a foot deep and three feet long out from the point of each root, and

fill them in with the richest of the neighbouring turf along with a

little manure. When the plants are small, and the roots only a tuft of

fibres, he should dig two narrow ruts about eight feet long crossing

each other at the middle at right angles, fill these as above, and put

in the plant at the crossing: the rich mould of the rotted turf and its

softness from being dug, will cause the plant to throw out its roots in

the form of a cross along the trenches. When the plants have reached

five or six feet in height, the earth may be removed a little from

the root, and, if more than one stout root leader have run out into

any of the four trenches, or if any have entered the unstirred earth,

they ought all to be cut excepting one, the stoutest {93} and most

regular in each trench. In a few years afterwards, when the plants have

acquired some strength, the earth should be removed gradually, baring

the roots to from two to five feet distance from the stool, or as far

as the main spurs have kept straight, cutting off any side-shoots

within this distance, should it be found that such late root-pruning

does not induce rot. This process of baring the roots will scarcely

injure the growth of the trees, as the roots draw the necessary pabulum

from a considerable distance, nor, if done carefully, will it endanger

their upsetting; and the roots, from exposure to the air, will swell

to extraordinary size[23], so as to render them, ere long, the firmest

rooted trees in the wood. The labour of this not amounting to the

value of sixpence each, will be counterbalanced thrice {94} over by

the ease of grubbing the roots for knees; and the whole brought to the

shipwright will produce more than double the price that the straight

tree alone would have done.

_The forester should also examine and probe the roots of his growing

larch, even those of considerable size, in sound ground; and when

several strong horizontal spurs, not exceeding four, are discovered

nearly straight, and from two to five feet long, he ought to bare these

roots to that distance, that they may swell, carefully pruning away any

small side-roots, and reserve these plants as valuable store_, taking

good heed that no cart-wheel in passing, or feet of large quadruped,

wound the bared roots. In exposed situations the earth may be gradually

removed from the roots.

The rot in larch taking place in the part appropriate to knees, the

forester cannot be too wary in selecting the situations where there is

no risk of its attack, for planting those destined for this purpose. It

is also desirable, if possible, to have the knee timber in ground free

of stones or gravel, as the grubbing in stoney ground is expensive, and

the roots often embrace stones which, by the future swelling of the

bulb, are completely imbedded and shut up in the wood, particularly

in those places between the spurs {95} where the saw section has to

divide them for knees. Were the roots carefully bared at an early

period, it would tend to prevent the gravel from becoming imbedded in

the bulb. Nothing can be more annoying to the shipwright, when he has

bestowed his money, ingenuity, and labour, upon an unwieldy root, and

brought his knees into figure at the cost of the destruction of his

tools by the enveloped gravel, to discover stains of incipient rot

which renders it lumber.

This plan of baring the roots might be extended to oak trees for knees,

baring and pruning about a foot out from the bulb annually. By exposure

to the air, the timber of the root would mature and become red wood

of sufficient durability. When covered with earth, the root of the

oak remains white or sap wood, and soon decays after being dug up,

the matured wood of the stem scarcely extending at all underneath the

surface of the ground. The roots of the pine tribe are the reverse of

this, at least the bulb and the spurs near it, are the best matured,

reddest, toughest, most resinous, part of the tree. It is probably

unnecessary to observe, that it would be folly to remove the earth from

the bulb of trees in situations where water would stand for any length

of time in the excavation. {96}

_Larch knees are possessed of such strength and durability, and are of

such adaptation by their figure and toughness, that were a sufficient

quantity in the market, and their qualities generally known, we

believe that none else would be used for vessels of any description of

timber—even for our war-navy of oak._ In America, where it is difficult

to procure good oak knees in their close forest, it is customary to

use them of spruce roots even for their finest vessels. The knees of

vessels have a number of strong bolts, generally of iron, passing

through them to secure the beam-ends to the sides of the ship. Larch

knees are the more suited for this, as they do not split in the driving

of the bolts, and contain a resinous gum which prevents the oxidation

of the iron.

As the larch, unlike the oak, affords few or no crooks naturally,

excepting knees, the artificial formation of larch crooks is of the

utmost consequence to the interest of the holders of larch plantations

now growing. In order to obtain a good market for their straight

timber, it is absolutely necessary to have a supply of crooks ready

as soon as possible to work the straight up. This would increase the

demand, and thence enhance the price of the straight more than any one

not belonging to the craft could {97} believe. In good soil many of

the crooks would be of sufficient size in twenty years to begin the

supply, if properly thinned out. In a forest of larch containing many

thousand loads, and which had been untouched by any builder, we have

seen the greatest difficulty in procuring crooks for one small brig.

It is only on very steep ground, and where the tree has been a little

upset after planting, that any good crooks are found. From the rather

greater diameter required of larch timbers, and also from the nature of

the fibre of the wood, we should suppose that steam bending of larch

timbers would scarcely be followed, even as a _dernier ressort_.

Larch, from its great lateral toughness, particularly the root, and

from its lightness, seems better adapted for the construction of

shot-proof vessels than any other timber; and opposed _end-way_ to shot

in a layer, arch fashion, several feet deep around a vessel, would

sustain more battering than any other subject we are acquainted with,

metal excepted. Were the part above water of a strong steam-vessel,

having the paddles under cover, a section of a spheroid or half egg

cut longitudinally, and covered all around with the root cuts of larch

five or six feet deep with the hewn down bulb, external; well supported

{98} inside, having nothing exposed outside of this arch, and only a

few small holes for ventilators and eyes; there is no shot in present

naval use that would have much impression upon it. Had such a vessel

a great impelling power, and a very strong iron cutwater, or short

beak wedge-shaped (in manner of the old Grecian galleys), projecting

before the vessel under water, well supported within by beams radiating

back in all directions, she might be wrought to split and sink a fleet

of men-of-war lying becalmed, in a few hours. This could be done

by running successively against each, midships, and on percussion

immediately backing the engine, at same time spouting forth missiles,

hot water, or sulphuric acid from the bow to obstruct boarding; but

even though the external arch were covered with assailants like a

swarm of bees, they would be harmless, or could be easily displaced.

To prevent combustion by red hot shot, the larch blocks, after drying,

might have their pores filled by pressure with alkali. However, the

employment of bomb-cannon about to be introduced in naval warfare,

throwing explosive shot, regulated with just sufficient force to

penetrate without passing through the side of the opposed vessel, will

render any other than metallic defensive cover ineffectual; but {99}

this circumstance will, at the same time, completely revolutionize sea

affairs, laying on the shelf our huge men-of-war, whose place will be

occupied with numerous bomb-cannon boats, whose small size will render

them difficult to be hit, and from which one single explosive shot

taking effect low down in the large exposed side of a three decker will

tear open a breach sufficient to sink her almost instantly. _For the

construction of these boats, larch, especially were a proportion bent,

would be extremely suitable, and thence larch will probably, ere long,

become our naval stay._

Larch has been used in the building-yards of the Tay for 20 years back;

and there is now afloat several thousand tons of shipping constructed

of it. The Athole Frigate built of it nearly 12 years ago, the Larch, a

fine brig built by the Duke of Athole several years earlier, and many

other vessels built more recently, prove that larch is as valuable

for naval purposes as the most sanguine had anticipated. The first

instance we have heard of British larch being used in this manner, was

in a sloop repaired with it about 22 years back. The person to whom it

had belonged, and who had sailed it himself, stated to us immediately

after its loss, that this sloop had been built of oak about 36 years

before; that at 18 years {100} old her upper timbers were so much

decayed as to require renewal, which was done with larch; that 18 years

after this repair this sloop went to pieces on the remains of the

pier of Methel, Fifeshire, and the top timbers and second foot-hooks

of larch were washed ashore as tough and sound as when first put into

the vessel, not one spot of decay appearing, they having assumed the

blue dark colour which some timber acquires in moist situations, when

it may be stiled _cured_; being either no longer liable to the putrid

change constituting dry rot, or which forms timber into a proper

soil for the growth of dry rot; or, from this blueness caused by the

union of the tannin with iron acting as a poison on vegetation: this

blueness, resulting from some alteration in the balance of affinities,

occurs chiefly in timber containing much of the tannin principle, in

which larch abounds. The owner of a larch brig who had employed her

for several years on tropical voyages, also assures us that the timber

will wear well in any climate, and that he would prefer larch to any

other kind of wood, especially for small vessels; he also states that

the deck of this brig, composed of larch plank, stood the tropical heat

well, and that it did not warp or shrink as was apprehended.

From the softness of the fibre and want of {101} density of the larch,

we would not deem it suitable for planking vessels beyond the size

of ordinary merchantmen, say 500 tons, as in the straining of very

large vessels, when the greatest force comes upon the outward skin,

the fabric of the wood might crush before it, along the edge of the

plank, and throw (chew) the oakum. In ordinary sized vessels, however,

larch plank retains the oakum better than oak, from greater lateral

elasticity. For the purpose of timbers, if root-cuts[24], and properly

bent, we would think larch suitable to the largest class of vessels;

as, though light, it is tough and quite free from knot, crack, or

cross-grain, which is so common in oak, and which occasions dense old

oak in large masses to give way at once, before a shock or strain,

the hardness and unyielding nature of the fibre concentrating the

whole dirupting impetus to one point. Larch may also be advantageously

employed in the ceiling or inside skin of the part of war vessels

above water: shot bores it, comparatively, like an auger,—thence the

structure will endure longer under fire, and life be much economized.

In all places where larch has become known, it has completely

superseded other timber for {102} clinker-built boats, surpassing all

others in strength, lightness, and durability. For this purpose, young

trees of about 9 inches diameter, in root-cuts from 10 to 20 feet in

length, with a gentle bend at one end, such as the larch often receives

from the south-west wind, are the most suitable. The log should be

kept in the bark till used, and in dry weather the boards put upon the

boat’s side within two or three days from being sawn out, as no timber

we are acquainted with parts sooner with its moisture than larch; and

the boards do not work or bend pleasantly when dry. When dried, the

thin larch board is at once strong, tough, durable, and extremely

light. The tough strength, almost equalling leather, is owing to the

woven or netted structure of the fibre of the wood, entirely different

from the pine, whose reedy structure runs parallel with very slight

connecting or diverging fibres. It is very difficult to split larch

even by wedges.

For rural purposes generally, larch is incomparably the best adapted

timber, especially for rail or fence, or out-door fabric exposed

to wind and weather. It is also getting into use for implements of

husbandry, such as harrows, ploughs, and carts. We have seen a larch

upright paling, the timber of which, with the exception of the large

charred posts, {103} had only been eight years in growing, standing a

good fence, sixteen years old, decked out by moss and lichen in all the

hoary garniture of time.

In the construction of buildings, larch is valuable only for the

grosser parts, as beams, lintels, joists, couples. For the finer

boarded part, it is so much disposed to warp, and so difficult to be

worked, as generally to preclude use. It is, however, asserted that if

larch be seasoned by standing two years with the bark stripped from

the bole before being cut down, that the timber becomes manageable for

finer house work.

Although larch timber be extremely durable in exposed situation, yet

it yields to the depredations of insects fully as soon as any pine

timber in close houses. We have proof of it in house-furniture about 50

years old, but it is considerably moth-eaten by apparently a smaller

insect than common. Larch stools also disappear in forests sooner than

the stools of Scots fir, being eaten by a species of beetle; and the

sea-worm devours larch in preference to almost any other wood.

We have looked over some experiments conducted at Woolwich, in trial

of the comparative strength of larch and other fir timber, where the

larch is stated inferior to Riga and Dantzic fir, Pitch pine, {104}

and even Yellow pine. Larch, in the districts of Scotland where it

is grown and much in use, is universally allowed to be considerably

stronger than other fir; and the sawyers of it have one-fourth more pay

per stated measure. We, ourselves, have had considerable experience

of the strength of larch applied to many purposes, and have found it

in general much superior in strength to other fir. We have known a

crooked topmast of this timber, to which the sailors bore a grudge,

defy their utmost ingenuity to get carried away. We once had four

double horse-carts, made (excepting the wheels) of peeled young larch

of rather slow growth, for the carriage of large stones; these, by

mistake, were made very slight, so light, that, without the wheels, a

man could have carried one of them away. When we saw the first loading

of stones nearly a ton weight each, two in each cart, and the timber

yielding and creaking like a willow-basket, we did not expect they

would have supported the weight and jostlings of a rugged road many

yards; yet they withstood this coarse employment for a long time. The

timber of larch near the top of the tree is, however, very inferior and

deficient in toughness; and it is not improbable that the experiments

above alluded to at Woolwich had been made with larch {105} timber

deficient in strength from being a top. White larch has comparatively

smaller and more numerous branches than any other of the Coniferæ;

consequently the timber is freer of large knots, and has more equable

strength, as well in small spars as when large and cut out into joists

and beams, provided the timber be not too far up the tree. _Larch,

however, compared with pines and firs, has the timber much stronger

when young, and several inches or below a foot in diameter, than when

old and large_: this may partly be owing to its deficiency in resinous

deposit.

ENDNOTES TO PART II.

[10] We have often preferred the terms kind, breed, family, individual,

to genus, species, variety, subvariety, as the former seem less

definite. Were nature true to the latter classification as employed by

botanists, it would be convenient.

[11] In those we observed, we considered this last circumstance had a

considerable share as a predisposing cause of the attack of the worm.

Forests of _Pinus sylvestris_ are sometimes destroyed by insects under

the bark, in cases where it is difficult to decide whether external

circumstances, such as a dry warm season, has been promotive of the

increase of the insect itself, or has induced some disorder in the

plant, rendering the juices more suitable aliment to the worm.

[12] Some nautical or technical terms have unavoidably crept into

this work; we shall not presume to think any explanation necessary:

Britannia would blush _jusqu’au blanc des yeux_, to the _tips_ of the

fingers and toes, did she think it were doubted that any of her sons,

not doomed to unceasing mechanical labour, were unacquainted with these.

[13] It is termed by our professors _Salix fragilis_, or Crack Willow,

from the small branches breaking easily at the junction of the annual

growth—or, perhaps, Crack Willow, from the branches breaking with

considerable report; or from the wood, while burning, frequently

detonating or crackling, from the expansion of some aërial fluid within

the fibres. Though named by their sapience _fragilis_, it is not weaker

than other large growing willows, but stronger and denser; and, being

harder in the small branches, they do not bend, but break when their

bark and alburnum is driest, in winter. The timber is superior to that

of _Salix alba_, or of any other large growing willow we are acquainted

with, and is sufficiently pliant and tough.

[14] Red Canadian pine is generally termed _Pinus resinosa_; but as

it is not so resinous as several other kinds, we consider _Pinus

rubra_ (_rubra_ from the colour of stem and also of timber), which is

sometimes used, more suitable. The pitch pine of the American United

States should be _Pinus resinosa_.

[15] We think that in mankind the variations of the children of the

same parents do not soften entirely—there would seem to be certain

types or nuclei both of appearance and temperament around which

external and internal character vibrates.

[16] The Canadian red pine resembles P. sylvestris or Norway pine so

much, that it is usually styled Norway pine by the settlers: Though

different, it is so nearly allied to P. sylvestris, that we consider

the number of sap-growths may be referred to the climate and soil, and

not to the kind,—that is, that, were it grown in Britain, if it did not

at first, it would in the course of time come to have fewer sap-growths.

[17] Our common larch, like almost every other kind of tree, consists

of numberless varieties, which differ considerably in quickness of

growth, ultimate size, and value of timber. This subject has been

much neglected. We are, however, on the eve of great improvements in

arboriculture; the qualities and habits of varieties are just beginning

to be studied. It is also found that the uniformity in each kind of

wild growing plants called _species_, may be broken down by art or

culture, and that when once a breach is made, there is almost no limit

to disorder; the _mele_ that ensues being nearly incapable of reduction.

[18] There is yet no sufficient data for the term alpine plant, but

with reference to latitude. The influence on vegetables, arising from

rarefaction and diminution of pressure of atmosphere, from difference

of stimulus of solar ray—when the entire ray of light, heat, and

chemical power, though less intense, is radiated fresh, and not much

broken or modified by refraction and reflection, and heat communicated

more in proportion by radiation than by contact of heated air; or

from difference of electric or galvanic or other meteoric impression

connected with altitude or ranges of mountains, or with primary rocks

or more upright strata, has not been made the subject of research, at

least has not been sufficiently investigated by any naturalist.

[19] When water is stationary, either in the pores of the soil or by

itself, if the temperature be not very low, a slight putrefaction

generally commences, aided by the dead vegetable or animal matter

contained in the soil or the water; and it is only the more robust

aquatic vegetables whose juices are not corrupted, from their roots

being soaked in this tainted fluid. It would appear, too, that the

aqueous part of the atmosphere is also susceptible of the same putrid

changes, although in general the putrescency may have commenced before

the evaporation. This condition of the aqueous part of the atmosphere

is a disposing cause to blight or mildew in vegetables, and remittent,

intermittent, and putrid fevers in man. Mill-ponds are notorious both

for mildew and agues.

[20] We have had no experience of larch, excepting very young, growing

on chalk and its affinities. We are told there are a few instances

where larch has reached 50 years in these calcareous soils, some

distance south of London. This merits attention.

[21] “Oh! the bonny blooming heather.”—“Man has spoken evil things of

the sun, of love, and of life.”

[22] As we held this plan of forming larch knees, and of bending

larch, of considerable importance, we some time ago presented it in

manuscript, along with some other matter, to the Highland Society

of Scotland. Tiring, however, of the delay of examination, perhaps

unavoidable in their official departments, and from some improvements

occurring to us during the delay, we requested it back. We now present

it under this more convenient form to the Society, and hope they

will find the examination or perusal of it printed, not quite so

impracticable as when in manuscript. It will afford us pleasure to

know that this useful Society approves, and that the members who have

opportunity are setting about following our directions. We especially

recommend to them to probe the roots of their growing larch, and to lay

bare those fitted for knees.

[23] The landlord agriculturist is sufficiently aware of the influence

of the baring the upper part of the root of turnip, while the plant

is young, in extending the future growth of the bulb, and that a dry

situation gives most root in proportion to stem. These are general laws

in vegetation. There are few observers who have not remarked the very

large size which roots have attained when the trees have originally

been planted on dikes, and the dike earth removed, leaving the roots

bare. Should any person examine the very great difference of thickness

between the upper and lower part, from the heart of a root near the

bulb, he will at once discover the influence of exposure to the air and

freeness from pressure in promoting the swelling.

[24] As you ascend the tree the timber deteriorates greatly.

{106} PART III.

MISCELLANEOUS MATTER CONNECTED WITH NAVAL TIMBER.

NURSERIES.

Much of the luxuriance and size of timber depending upon the particular

variety of the species, upon the treatment of the seed before sowing,

and upon the treatment of the young plant, and as this fundamental

subject is neither much attended to nor generally understood, we shall

take it up _ab initio_.

The consequences are now being developed of our deplorable ignorance

of, or inattention to, one of the most evident traits of natural

history, that vegetables as well as animals are generally liable to

an almost unlimited diversification, regulated by climate, soil,

nourishment, and new commixture of already formed varieties. In those

with which man is most intimate, and where his agency in throwing

them from their natural locality and dispositions has brought out

this power of diversification in stronger shades, it has been forced

upon his notice, as in man himself, in the dog, horse, cow, sheep,

poultry,—in the apple, {107} pear, plum, gooseberry, potato, pea,

which sport in infinite varieties, differing considerably in size,

colour, taste, firmness of texture, period of growth, almost in

every recognisable quality. In all these kinds man is influencial in

preventing deterioration, by careful selection of the largest or most

valuable as breeders; but in timber trees the opposite course has

been pursued. The large growing varieties being so long of coming to

produce seed, that many plantations are cut down before they reach this

maturity, the small growing and weakly varieties, known by early and

extreme seeding, have been continually selected as reproductive stock,

from the ease and conveniency with which their seed could be procured;

and the husks of several kinds of these invariably kiln-dried[25], in

order that the seeds might be the more easily extracted! May we, then,

wonder that our plantations are occupied by a sickly short-lived puny

race, incapable of supporting existence in situations where their own

kind had formerly flourished—particularly evinced in the genus {108}

Pinus, more particularly in the species Scots fir; so much inferior

to those of Nature’s own rearing, where only the stronger, more hardy,

soil-suited varieties can struggle forward to maturity and reproduction?

We say that the rural economist should pay as much regard to the breed

or particular variety of his forest trees, as he does to that of his

live stock of horses, cows, and sheep. That nurserymen should attest

the variety of their timber plants, sowing no seeds but those gathered

from the largest, most healthy, and luxuriant growing trees, abstaining

from the seed of the prematurely productive, and also from that of

the very aged and over-mature; as they, from animal analogy, may be

expected to give an infirm progeny, subject to premature decay.

As, from many facts, a considerable influence is known to result in

several vegetables from drying severely the seeds from whence they

had sprung[26],—from exposure of these seeds to the sun and air,—from

long keeping, or from injury by mould or {109} impure air, which all

tend to shorten the life of the resulting individual, to accelerate

the period of its seeding, and to increase its reproductiveness; the

nurseryman should pay the utmost attention to the seeds he makes use

of, procuring them as recent as possible, and preserving them in

well-aired lofts, or under sheds, and also retaining them in the husks

till the time of sowing: the superior germinating power of the seed

thus treated will repay this attention.

From facts we are also assured, that, in some hard wood kinds,

and also in the Coniferæ, the hanging of the growth of the young

plant, the spindling up in the seed-bed, or injudicious deterring

treatment afterwards, have a tendency to injure the constitution of

the individual, inducing premature seeding, and diminutive old age;

and also, that when plants, especially of some size, of these kinds

of trees have their roots much broken, the secondary or new roots

often partake something of the nature of the infirm runners, which,

in most kinds of trees, are thrown out by layers,—the resulting tree,

as in the case of those from layers in fruit trees being dwarfish,

sooner exhausting itself by reproduction, and sooner decaying. For

distinctness, we shall recapitulate: {110}

That the seed be from the largest, hardiest variety of tree in

luxuriant growth.

That the seed be recent, and carefully preserved in husk till sowing,

and extracted from the husk or cone without artificial drying.

That the nursery be in an open, rather exposed situation,—most eligible

without shelter either of tree, hedge or wall, of rather light dry soil

of ordinary quality, of dry climate, and, in preference, soil naturally

good to that made so by high manuring.

That the plants be not too close, nor remain too long in the seed-bed;

that they be extricated without much fracture of root, and be replanted

in wide rows, with good space between the plants in the row, keeping

the roots as superficially extended as they will thrive, and without

doubling the main root up to the surface of the ground.

That the plant receive no pruning, excepting in the case of more than

one leader appearing, or feeder unproportionally extended; and no

root-section, in order to retard its growth, or increase the number of

root-fibres; and that its ultimate removal be accomplished without much

fracture of root or branch.

By exposed situation of nursery, ordinary quality of soil, and much

room in the seed-bed and rows, we {111} shall have plants with firm

fibre and hardy constitution, with thick juicy bark, thick stem at the

surface of ground, and numerous feeders all the way down the stem.

Roots are most easily extricated from light soil, and with least

fracture. They are large in proportion to stem in dry soil and climate,

and when they are situated near the surface of the ground.—A healthy

growing plant, of firm fibre, large root, and sturdy short stem of one

leader and numerous feeders, is the great desideratum: a large root is

the more desirable, as a considerable part of it is generally broken

off in transplanting, rendering it disproportioned to the top, which,

in consequence, either languishes, or receives deterring cropping.

We consider, that a tree grows more luxuriantly, acquires larger size,

and is much longer of reaching senility, when it is furnished with

several large roots, say one or two to each of the cardinal points,

extending horizontally out with bold leaders, than when numerous small

rootlets diverge in all directions from the bulb, as is the case

in some kinds when much fracture of root takes place from frequent

removals, or, when the nursery is of moist or mossy soil, the plants

being removed when of considerable size. We have cut down old stunted

hard wood trees having extremely numerous crowded roots, all {112}

engrafted into a matted net throughout the soil near the bulb, and

without any strong extended leaders. We attributed this crowded rooting

to the plants having been of considerable size when put in, and losing

their natural leaders; the situation, an avenue exposed to cattle, went

to confirm the probability that the defect of the rooting had been

owing to the largeness of the plants.

When a tree is supplied by numerous, consequently small and not

wide-extending roots, as the tree acquires size, the wide spreading

branches and leafy top shed off the rain and dews from the space

occupied by these roots, very few of them extending beyond this shade;

at the same time, this narrow space becomes soon exhausted of the more

particular pabulum necessary to the kind of plant, the exhaustion

being accelerated by the dryness. This dryness and exhaustion of the

soil very soon show their effects aloft; the living hark of the tree

becomes covered from its connexion with the air, and constricted by a

thick hard dead crust, which, with the consequent very thin alburnum

affording an inefficient communication between the supply and demand,

react to impair the general vigour, and particularly to impede the

descent of the proper sap necessary to the enlargement and further

extension of the roots. The buds {113} not receiving sufficient supply

of root-moisture, instead of pressing on to new formation of wood, only

find enough to burgeon out into flower-buds, which the following season

drain the tree by reproduction; this fruit-bearing alternates with

periods of exhaustion, when the buds have not even supply sufficient to

swell into the embryo of flower and seed, but extend only into a few

leaves; and sometimes, in the event of a benign season, the buds may

throw out a small extension of new shoots. The tree progresses very

slowly in thickness of bole all this time, and generally soon falls a

prey to disease. On the other hand, when the tree has its naturally

fine large roots preserved, and is situated in open forest, and mixed

with other kinds, these large roots diverging widely from the tree and

each other, have a much larger less-sought space to forage in; and the

tree enjoying a long period of luxuriant growth before it fall much

into seed-bearing, acquires strength of constitution to thrive and

increase for ages under this drain.

We are satisfied that cutting or fracture of the root-leaders,

especially near the bulb, when they have acquired some size, is

injurious to the extension and longevity of the tree, in pines and most

kinds of hard wood; and that branch-pruning, as generally practised,

is not less pernicious, first, by the {114} derangement which the

plant receives, from the regular connexion between the rootlets and

their affiliated twigs and leaves being destroyed by the section,

and afterwards from the distance between the manufacturing parts,

the leaves and the sources of supply in the ground being unnaturally

extended, especially when the stem is long, slender, and much denuded.

Although we consider severe root fracture at planting pernicious to

some hard wood and resinous trees, yet there are kinds to which it

is advantageous. All plants which grow freely by cuttings, strike

better to have the roots pruned in near to the bulb. Many kinds

of seedling-plants also strike sooner, and throw out stronger new

root-leaders, when the long straggling fibres are cut in a little,

similar to the branches above, which, when over-numerous and slender,

throw out more vigorous shoots by being cropped at planting.

PLANTING.

In regard to planting, soils divide into the _dry_ and the _moist_;

the former require to have the plants put in as soon as possible after

the leaves drop off—at any rate, not to allow February to pass without

completing the planting; excepting evergreens, {115} which should not

be delayed beyond the middle of April. In dry soils, if the expense

be not limited to a very low rate, pit-planting should be adopted,

and the pits are better to be dug some months previous, in order

that the earth may be aërated, and the turf partly rotted. The moist

soils may be divided into those which are much disposed to throw the

plant from the frosts and thaws, and those which are not; the former

consisting of moory, soft, or spongy earth, upon a retentive subsoil;

the latter, of the firmer, more equable loams, clays, and tills. Unless

the plants are large, they should always be slitted into the former

soil, and the work performed as soon as the ground becomes sadded in

spring—as, though the lateness of planting should preclude throwing of

pitted plants the first season, they will often be thrown the ensuing

winter. When plants are very small, they may be put into the latter,

by slitting; but if middle-sized, or large, they are better pitted. It

is of the greatest importance to these moist soils, to have very deep,

open[27] drains executed previous to planting, cutting off all the

springs at their sources, and, if possible, drying the subsoil to such

a degree that water will not stand in the pits. Should this be {116}

accomplished, it is highly advantageous to dig the pits in time for

the excavated clay to have its cohesion broken by frost: the planting

should afterwards be performed exactly at the time when this frosted

mould is sufficiently dry, and no more, to shake conveniently in among

the fibres of the roots, and not to knead into mortar, by the necessary

pressing of the feet. After this pressure, a little of the tenderest of

the soil should be spread loose over the surface, to exclude drought.

Should this dryness of subsoil not be effected, the pits must be dug

in spring, at the time the clay is most friable; that is, between the

moist and dry; and the plants put in immediately, breaking the clay as

fine as possible, and closing it well around the roots. It is better to

delay planting even till May, than to perform it too wet. When planting

is delayed late in spring, the plants should be kept _shoughed_ in the

coldest situation that can be found, at the top of a hill exposed to

the north, or in some cold, damp, back-lying place. Care should also

be taken not to expose them much while planting, as they, especially

if the buds be bursting, very soon wither when root and stem are both

exposed to the sun and dry air. When late planted, they ought always

to be dipped as far up as the branches in a puddle of clay and water:

{117} should they be dipped over head in the puddle, it will not

injure them.

What is of most importance to the success of planting, is to have the

soil put very closely in contact with all the root-fibre, and these

fibres in due natural separation, with a little tender mould on the

surface;—not to have water stagnating around the root, at any rate

during the first spring;—to have the planting done in time, to receive

a good sadding by rain before the spring droughts commence;—to prevent

rank weeds, furze, &c. from smothering the young plants;—and to exclude

or destroy all bestial, as cattle, sheep, rabbits, hares, mice, &c. In

keeping the latter in check, a few families of foxes are very efficient.

FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON PRUNING.

Every forester is aware, that when feeders are pruned off, they should

be cut away as close as possible to, and without tearing the hole.

To perform this without danger of injury to the tree, when feeders

of considerable size are to be removed, the branch should first be

sawn over at about one foot beyond the intended section, and a second

section then performed at the proper place. This {118} requires a

little more time, but not nearly so much as an inexperienced person

would suppose, as the section a foot out is made very quickly, and the

pruner generally takes as much time to reach the branch as to cut it

off. The neatness and advantage of this method will be acknowledged by

those who have seen it practised, to compensate for the longer time it

requires.

We find the saw, shears, and knife, the best instruments for pruning;

in some cases of difficult approach, the long-handed pruning-iron may

be resorted to. When the lopping is performed by a percussion tool, the

wood and bark at the section is often shattered by the blow, and thence

is less likely to cicatrize soundly; and even when executed in the best

manner, the surface of the section is smooth and hard, consequently

a good conductor of heat, dries much, and thence shrinks and cracks

near the centre of the cut, opening a deep crevice, into which the

rain penetrates, and often rots deep into the stem. When the section

is made by the saw, a slight fibrous clothing is left upon the place,

which in some measure protects the ends of the cut tubes from the frost

and drying air, and excludes the heat; in consequence the wood at the

section does not lose its vitality so far inward, and is not so liable

to shrink {119} and crack in the centre and receive rain. The section

can also generally be made much neater and closer by the saw than by

any other instrument. The common erroneous belief, that a section by

a sharp-edged instrument is less injurious than by the saw, is merely

hypothetical, from wide analogy from animals. The pernicious influence

on the whole individual, received and transmitted by the nerves from

mangled section of animal fibre, is probably entirely awanting in

vegetables; the whole process of life and of cicatrization is also

totally different.

The forester should also be very wary in cutting off a considerable

branch, whose section would incline upwards, as such a section, when it

has received a circle of new bark and wood, forms a cup which receives

and contains rain water, which quickly corrupts the bottom of the cup,

and often rots the centre of the tree down to the ground. It is better

to crop such a branch several feet from the main stem, close by some

small feeder, unless the branch be dead. In pruning, every considerable

section should be as near as possible at right angles with the horizon,

or rather inclining inward below. Of naval timber, the beech is by far

the most likely to take rot by being pruned, and should never have a

large limb cut off, as the divided fibres generally die {120} downward

a number of feet below the section, and soon afterward decay, leaving a

hole in the bole.

As nothing retards the growth of trees more than full flowering and

seeding, if pruning diminish this flowering and seeding, so that the

gain from the prevention of this exhaustion more than counterbalances

the loss of the pruned-off part, the pruning will of course accelerate

the growth of the tree; but the removal of lower branches, although in

the first place promotive of growing buds and extension of the top, in

a year or two longer only tends to throw the tree more into flowering

and seeding. The rich dryness, or want of fluidity of the juices which

occasions flower-buds, is also induced by hot, dry atmosphere, and

short supply of moisture from the roots during the preceding summer,

both of which disposing causes are increased by a long naked stem.

When the proportion of the part above ground of a tree to the roots

is diminished, growing buds result, at least to a certain extent; yet

it would be very difficult to practise a proper system of pruning on

this principle, as the consequent lengthened stem is, in the end,

promotive of flower-buds, especially in dry seasons, and the loss of

feeders might greatly counterbalance the gain from not flowering, did a

succession of wet cold seasons follow. {121}

The season when pruning should be performed, is something dependent

upon the kinds, whether they bleed when pruned in early spring or do

not. Almost any convenient time will suit for pruning the latter, but

we rather prefer March, April, May, June, or autumn after the leaf has

fallen. The former, sycamore, maple, birch, &c. ought either to be

pruned in autumn, or after the buds are beginning to break in spring,

as they bleed and suffer considerable exhaustion when pruned in the

latter part of winter or early spring. From some facts, we consider

that pruning in winter, especially in severe weather, gives a check to

the vigour of the tree; others agree with this.

{122} OBSERVATIONS ON TIMBER.

The quantity of measurable wood of the various timber trees which

a certain extent of adapted ground will carry, when come to full

maturity, or when they may be most profitably felled, and the quantity

that may be thinned out during the maturing, with the time requisite

to bring to value, with the relative selling price per foot, and also

whether the greatest quantity of timber can be grown of one kind or

mixed, are questions of more importance than might be judged, from

the attention paid to the subject. Of our common timber trees, Scots

fir, silver fir, and spruce, larch, pinaster, black Italian poplar,

Salix alba, commonly called Huntingdon willow, red-wood willow, beech,

Spanish chestnut, ash, plane, elm, birch, oak, are here ranked nearly

in the order of quantity of measure which adapted ground in this

country will produce or support; that is, that an acre of close Scots

fir trees, of whatever age, will admeasure more timber than an acre

covered with any other tree of the same size; and a close acre of oaks

less. A little further south, in the temperate zone, the large-leaved

deciduous trees, particularly the {123} elms, acquire thicker and

longer stem, in closer order, in a given time. In this country, in

rich warm situations, this is visible in some degree, both as regards

quantity of timber and quickness of growth, compared with pines. It

would be difficult to state the comparative quickness of growth of

the various timber trees, as so much depends on soil, situation, and

treatment; it also varies considerably at different stages of their

growth. It is well known, that in proper soil, black Italian poplar,

Salix alba, and red wood willow, exceed all others.

As, for naval use, it is not the quickness of growth and bulk of

the timber altogether, but of the matured timber alone, which is of

consequence—we give a view of the number of growths or annual circles

of sap-wood (the useless part), which the main stems of several kinds

of trees presented. Most of those we examined had a greater number

of sap-layers near the top than at a few feet above ground, and the

vigorous branches had generally more than the stem immediately adjacent

to them; the branches with least vigour had fewest sap circles. {124}

_Of Home Growth._

Common oak, some trees 10, others 14, others 18

Spanish chestnut, 2, 5, 6

Scots elm, _U. montana_, 16, 25, 32

English elm, _U. campestris_, 0, 10, 0

Red-wood willow, 8, 14, 0

Laburnum, 3, 5, 0

Wild cherry, _Prunus cerasus_, 16, 24, 0

Black Italian poplar, 9, 0, 0

Scots fir, 20, 30, 40

Pinaster, 0, 10, 0

White larch, free of rot, 5, 12, 18

_Of Foreign Growth._

Memel fir, 0, 43, 0

Red Canadian pine, 0, 100, 0

Yellow Canadian pine, 38, 44, 0

The process of maturing in several did not proceed regularly, some

of the rings being reddened on one side and remaining white on the

other: this did not seem to be influenced by position to south or

north. In the larch, particularly in those trees {125} where the rot

is incipient, this maturing is very irregular, in the view of the

cross section dashing out into angles and irregularities, and being

darker red than in the healthy plants: in those where rot had made

considerable progress, the red-wood was within a circle or two of

the bark. This approach of red-wood to the outside is so regularly

connected with rot, that we needed no other indication of the roots

being unfit for knees, and therefore not worth grubbing, than merely a

slight notch by two cuts of a hatchet.

Those kinds of timber whose matured wood assumes a brown or reddish

colour, are generally much less susceptible of change, either by simple

putrefaction or by attack of fungi, or gnawing of insects, than those

whose matured wood remains of a whitish colour. In many of the latter,

there does not even appear to be any particular change of constitution,

or greater capability of resisting corruption or insects, between the

alburnum and mature wood, although the difference between the two is

generally perceptible when the cross section is drying, and immediate,

as in the brown or red; there being no gradual change or softening in

either between the mature and immature. Although the change in those

which become brown and red does not much affect {126} the hardness or

strength of the timber (mature and immature being nearly equal in these

when dried before corruption injures the latter), yet it materially

influences its nature or quality. We have taken down Laburnum trees in

the round natural form from the roofing of an old building, from which

nearly the whole yellow or sap-wood was eaten away by insects, although

they had not made the least impression upon the brown[28]. {127}

Whether timber be more lasting when cut at one time of the season than

at another, is not yet determined. The matured wood does not seem to be

much affected by the season, continuing nearly equally moist throughout

the year; life or action in it, though not quite, being nearly extinct,

and little or no circulation remaining; yet the matured wood of the

stool of the pine throws out a little resin when the tree is cut

down in summer,—perhaps only a mechanical effect of heat and drying.

Steeping in water for a considerable time is of far more importance

to the duration of timber than any thing depending on the time of the

season when it is cut down; steeping causes some acetous {128} change

in the timber (easily recognisable by the sense of smelling when any

section of it is made), which, judging from the effect the acetous

change has to preserve other vegetable matter from putrefaction, is

probably of considerable use in preserving the timber from decay,

either by rot or worming. The time of cutting, although of considerable

importance to the quality and durability of the sap-wood, appears to be

of little or none to the matured.

The age at which timber may be cut down being uncertain, the

height to which it should be trained up of clear stem is not very

determinable,—say that the trees are to be allowed to stand till

nearly full grown,—as long as the timber continues to retain its

strength and toughness when growing in proper soil, that is for

hard-wood trees 100 years and upwards, and for pines from two to three

hundred. On crowns of eminences and exposed bluffs, particularly when

the latitude or altitude is rather high, the soil inferior, or the

climate arid, from 15 to 30 feet of clear hole may be as much as can

judiciously be attempted; upon plains under common circumstances,

from 30 to 50 feet is an attainable stem; in sheltered dales and

valleys, they may be trained clean, and without branch, from 50 to

70 feet in altitude; and in cases where soil, situation, {129} and

climate, are all propitious, and it is desired that nature’s fullest,

grandest, development should be displayed, from 70 to 150 feet, clear

of branch, maybe gained. Lewis and Clarke describe a spruce, in a

sheltered dell on the river Columbia, which they measured, lying upon

the ground, 312 feet long from root to top. We have little belonging

to earth more sublime, or which bears home to man a deeper sense of

his bodily insignificance, and puny transient being, than an ancient

majestic forest, whose luxuriant foliage on high, seems of itself

almost a firmament of verdure, supported on lofty moss-covered columns,

and unnumbered branched arches,—a scene equally sublime, whether we

view it under the coloured and flickering lights and shadows of the

summer eve and morning, resounding to the song of the wild life which

harbours there,—or under the scattered beams streaming downward at

high noontide when all is still,—or in winter storms, when the wild

jarring commotion, the frightful rending and lashing of the straining

branches, like the arms of primeval giants, contending in their might,

bear accompaniment to the loud roar and bellow of the tempest, forming

a drone and chaunter to which demons might dance.

{130} CONCERNING OUR MARINE, &c.

Can we consider the Briton sane who speaks of bounding this country

to her home resources? Can any one doubt that our name, our wealth,

our power, are not wholly attributable to our _Marine_? Can any one

be ignorant that the superiority of our marine is wholly dependant on

our _foreign trade_, particularly the bulkier part of it, on _foreign

supply_? Does any one dread the necessity of _foreign supply_, from the

foolish fear that it may be cut off by war? Keeping out of view the

argument, that ere the British pride would suffer _other domination

on the waters_, our numbers would be well thinned away, they know

little of the influence of circumstance on man, who do not perceive

that, in the event of free trade, and of the population of Britain

increasing beyond what the country, under the best possible culture,

could support, the very necessity of being mistress of the seas would

make her so. They know little of what Britain is, country and people,

who doubt of her continued supremacy, should she not be ruined,

indeed, by following the narrow selfish {131} views of a party—a

party alike ungrateful[29] for the past, and blind to, or heedless

of, their own ultimate good. The position of Britain,—her stretch

of sea-coast, serrated with harbours,—her minerals, the principle

of mechanical motion, so necessary in the arts,—her navy, docks,

canals, roads, implements, and machinery, so superior to those of the

whole world beside,—her fertile soil,—her capital,—her protection of

property,—her insular situation,—her steady government and consequent

ingress of capital from the continent on any commotion,—her habits

of industry,—her knowledge of trade,—her sciences,—her arts,—her

free press,—her {132} religion[30],—and the stamina and indomitable

spirit of her people. All these, causes and effects combined, brought

into action under a climate the most favourable for developing the

moral and physical energies of man, where the extremes of temperature

neither relax nor chill, where the human muscle and human mind are more

capable of continued strong exertion, and machinery less influenced by

hygrometric and calorific change, than on any other spot of earth. When

all these are condensed into a nucleus of power of so small compass

that one spirit, one interest, may pervade all, but drawing support

by ramifications from every nook of the habitable world, should an

infatuated party not render unavailable these unmatched advantages,

cowardice could not even dream of peril to the supremacy of British

naval power.

Let us continue to extend our foreign intercourse and home

cultivation—let the merchant legislate in affairs of trade—the

landholder in country matters; each in that in which his judgment

has been formed by experience, acting always on the principle that

the general prosperity of the country is the interest {133} of

every class—that, like the branch and the root, their prosperity is

indissolubly combined.

When we view the advantages of Britain—almost to a wish,—when we view

her able and ready to supply the necessities of man in every clime,

in exchange for his superfluities, and to scatter science, morality,

the arts of life, all that conduces to happiness and improvement over

the nations,—when we view all this, being blasted by an exclusive

system of monopoly, of very doubtful advantage to one party of the

nation, and tyrannically oppressive upon all others, can we refrain

from execration? We would desire the casuist to draw a distinction

between the criminality of preventing the operative from exchanging

the produce of his labour (otherwise unsaleable) for cheap food[31],

when his family is famishing; and compelling the labour of the Negro

(whom you support with food) with the whip. Men will be found of a

virtue sufficiently easy to advocate either system. We only wish that

the supporters of {134} monopoly and their abettors were sent off to

some separate quarter of the world with all their beloved restrictions,

duties, tariffs, passports, revenue officers, blockade men, with the

innumerable petty interfering vexatious regulations, and all the

contrivances which surely the devil has invented to repress industry

and promote misery, where they might form an Elysium of their own.

There is nothing more certain, should we by restrictions continue to

banish knowledge, capital, and industry from our shores[32], than that

the Genius of Improvement will fix upon some other place for the seat

of her throne. _Maritime dominion_ will follow in her train; and on

the first war, all exportation of the products of our manufacturers

being at an end, unexampled misery will involve four-fifths of our

population, and an explosion will ensue, from its origin and character

of unparalleled fury, which will sweep to destruction the insane

authors of the calamity—tear to shreds the whole fabric of society—and

give to the winds all the institutions which man has been accustomed to

revere. {135}

* * * * *

It is disgraceful that our MARINE is not directly represented in the

British Parliament. Is it possible that every clown in England, who is

owner of a few acres or miserable hovel, is carried to the poll,—and

that our shipping interest, and brave seamen, to whom the rest of the

nation is indebted “for all they have, and almost all they know,”

are passed over—have not one direct representative—have not even one

direct vote, and that their interest is totally neglected[33]? Will it

be credited that our most sage legislators, as if on purpose to ruin

our marine, have laid on a tax of L. 4 per load (above 1s. 7d. per

solid foot) on oak-plank, and L. 2, 15s. per load on rough oak-timber,

imported from other nations; which, as only a small part of what is

(not of what would be) used, is so derived, at the same time that

it raises the price of the whole[34] nearly 100 per cent., tends

comparatively little to swell the revenue,—nearly the whole of the high

monopoly price reverting to our landholders and our grateful Canadian

{136} colony? As about a load (50 solid feet) of timber is required

for the construction of a ton of trading shipping, this duty, together

with the high duty on hemp, increases the cost of our vessels nearly

L. 4 per register ton, independent of the higher price of building

and sailing them, from other monopolies; and it is only from the very

superior skill, honesty and industry of our seamen[35], that our

shipping, since the peace, under this very great disadvantage, has been

at all enabled to compete with foreign. At Shields and Newcastle a new

merchant-vessel of oak, rigged and ready for sea, uncoppered, can be

purchased for L. 10 per register ton. Were the price, by the removal of

monopoly, reduced to L. 6 per ton, scarcely a foreign bottom, American

excepted, would compete with British, in the carrying trade, or would

enter a British port. Can it be believed that our very liberal late

minister (Mr Huskisson), and our very non-liberal member for Newark

(Mr Sadler), have both made a _full_ exposè of the distresses of our

shipping interest, and not once have adverted to the _cause_ of this,

and of the comparative decline of our naval preponderance—_the very

high duty on the_ {137} _material_? Does our Government perceive the

rapid strides which our rival brothers in America are making to surpass

us in marine—and will it be so besotted as continue laws to the speedy

fulfilment of this?

May we hope that, through the energy of OUR SAILOR KING, Britain will

lead the van in the disenfranchisement of man from the old bondage of

monopoly and restriction—that a more sane system of taxation (a tax on

property) will be adopted, as well as a necessary retrenchment—that the

true interest of Britain will be understood and followed, and a new era

begin. We are sick of the drivelling nonsense of our closet economists

about loss by colonies and foreign connexion. Bonaparte well knew the

value of SHIPS, COLONIES and COMMERCE, and dreaded the power which

eventually wrought his fall. The existence of China depends upon her

Agriculture, and the sovereign devotes a part of his time annually to

the plough. The existence of Britain depends upon her Marine, and the

king should always be bred a sailor—the heir-apparent and presumptive

being always sent to sea. In the case of a female, if she did not take

kindly to the sea-service, a dispensation might be allowed, on her

marrying a sailor, and the foolish law prohibiting our Royal Family

from marrying a Briton be put aside.

ENDNOTES TO PART III.

[25] If the heat and evaporation of a gardener’s pocket for several

days be sufficient to render the seeds of melons and gourds productive

of plants of earlier maturity, that is less disposed to extension and

more to reproduction,—what may be expected from kiln-drying fir-cones?

[26] The full ripening of the seeds of some cultivated varieties

of vegetables, and also the drying of the seeds severely without

artificial heat, are found to have considerable influence upon the

germination of the seeds, and even some impression upon the character

of the resulting plant.

[27] Covered drains are not adapted for woods, as the matted fibres of

the roots, especially of the semi-aquatic trees, very soon enter them

and form obstructions.

[28] Laburnum (Cytisus) is the most valuable timber this country

produces. It is equally deep in colour, and takes as fine a polish as

rose-wood, having also something slightly pellucid in the polished

surface. From its extreme hardness, it is much better adapted for

use than mahogany, not being indented or injured by blows or rough

treatment. We are acquainted with no other timber of home produce so

little liable to decay. The large-leaved variety in rich warm soils

acquires a diameter of a foot or a foot and a-half, and grows rapidly

till it fall into seed-bearing. Its usual very stunted growth is partly

owing to less valuable faster growing trees overtopping it: Were it

planted alone, and trained to proper curve, it might be profitably

reared for the upper timbers (the part where decay commences) of small

vessels: it has the thinnest covering of sap wood of any of our timber

trees. The extreme beauty and richness of its clustered depending

blossoms is a considerable injury to its growth, as it is often broken

and despoiled of the branches on this account. The small-leaved

Laburnum, though producing the most beautiful timber, is of such

puny growth as not to rank as a forest tree. There is a peculiarity,

at least seldom occurring in other trees, attending the growth of

the small-leaved variety: a branch frequently gives up feeding the

connected trunk and roots, drawing supply of nourishment from these

upward, without returning much or any of the digested matter downward.

This branch above the place of the stagnation of the bark vessels

becomes enlarged, running into numerous shoots, which are generally

unnaturally thick and unhealthy, approaching to dropsical—often,

however, beautifully pendant down to the ground, from their weight

and the smallness of the supporting branch. We do not know whether

this is an awkward effort towards increase—that these branches, under

the influence of a not entirely matured instinct or faculty, droop in

search of earth to root, and extend by layers, in conformity to a habit

of some tribes of trees, in which this mode of increase is efficient,

or that it is a disease unconnected with design or final cause. These

overgrown branches of the small-leaved laburnum are generally thrown

out by trees, which, owing to circumstances, are little disposed to

seeding.

[29] Let us compare the wealth of the British landholder with that

of the like grade on the Continent. It is the unrivalled skill and

industry of our manufacturers and traders which have laid every shore

under contribution for the immense riches which has poured in upon our

landholders, and which, from juxtaposition, will continue to do so,

in a certain degree, under the fullest freedom of trade. It is now

absurd to talk of duties on foreign products, to counterbalance home

taxation—taxation now bears lightly on home agricultural production,

more so than in many parts of the Continent, and our manufacturers,

under the same or greater taxation, compete with and outstrip all the

world in cheapness of production.

[30] The dread of change in Catholic countries—the proscription of

almost every new work treating of science—the complete submission of

the mind to the religious authorities, bearded men “becoming little

children” even to the letter—the consequent general abandonment to

sensual enjoyment—the immense number of holidays—and the shoals of

meddling priests, are a great bar to improvement—an insurmountable

one to manufacturing pre-eminence. We need not say that all this is

subordinate to climate. Effect, however, soon turns to cause.

[31] Our industrious operatives, rendered trebly more productive by

recent machinery improvements, fabricate three times more commodity

than our landed and other population can with their present habits

consume. Few other nations can give else but food in exchange for this

overplus; our landholders have enacted laws to exclude food, and our

operatives are being starved down to the requisite number for home

supply.

[32] The same polity under which Britain has acquired supremacy, will

not now serve to continue it. A knowledge of the interests of nations

is abroad, and if we will not suffer our country to be the emporium of

the world, another will.

[33] See App. E.

[34] The price of any article raised at home, when any part requires to

be imported, of course rises to the whole cost (prime cost, duty and

freight) of the foreign.

[35] The chance of loss by wreck, damage from sea-water, and pilfering,

being much less in British than in foreign bottoms, enables the British

to obtain a higher freight than the foreign.

{138} PART IV.

NOTICES OF AUTHORS RELATIVE TO TIMBER.

After throwing together several of our own observations, we bethought

ourselves of examining into the ideas and experience of recent writers

on the same subject. Having taken notes of the more prominent matter

contained in their pages, we believe we shall do the public a service

by printing these notes, accompanied by slight remarks. This may be the

more useful, especially as almost every author has his own particular

mania, which few common readers have sufficient knowledge of the

subject to discriminate from the saner matter: and as, from the nature

of hobbies—from some shrewd enough guesses by the owner that they are

his own undoubted property—and, perhaps, from some misgivings, that

what he advances on these is not perfectly self-evident, he is thence

the more disposed to expatiate upon them, and embellish. The {139}

credulous and inexperienced, partly from this, and partly from the

fascination of the very improbability, rush at once into the snare;

bring the speculations or assertions to practical test; get quickly

disenchanted by realities, and ever after are disposed to treat all

written directions on material science with contempt. We bring forward

these authors in the order of perusal. We have found several remarks

similar to our own; this was to be expected.

{140} I. THE FORESTER’S GUIDE, _by Mr Monteath_.

This volume is the work of a man of some experience, and of

considerable observation and ingenuity, not much assisted by botanical

or physiological science or literary attainment, which he, indeed,

disclaims. His principal forte, and what he seems to have been most

engaged with, is oak-coppice—his besetting sin, cutting and cropping.

His directions on rearing and cutting coppice may be sensible;—those

who wish to practise the sacrilege of destroying young oak-forest, we

refer to him, as we have always had a horror at seeing a beautiful

sapling untimeously cut down, like an American bullock for its hide. At

present, and while peace continues, it is very easy to obtain plenty

of foreign bark, and also oak-timber, for consumption, at a very cheap

rate, for this reason—_and also, because, in the event of war, the

price of these articles would be nearly doubled—we would request the

holders of coppice, and, indeed, of all growing oak-timber, to pause

in their operations of cutting, and not to sacrifice their property

so unprofitably, to their own ultimate disadvantage, and also to the

detriment of {141} the national resources; but immediately to

set about converting their coppice-hags into oak-forest, by careful

thinning and selection_. For performing this, we refer them to Mr

Monteath in person, who seems to comprehend the utility, and to be

pretty well versed in the practice, of thinning; only we would desire

him, in pruning, to attend to the functions of the leaves; that the

more abundant the covering of healthy foliage, the tree will progress

the faster; and that the repeated cutting down of a young plant, year

after year, as he recommends, even sometimes extending it to five

years in succession, will either destroy the plant altogether, or be

extremely injurious to its growth: although, if the plant be stunted,

cutting it down, once, as every body knows, is the plan which should be

adopted with all kinds of our common forest trees—the coniferæ, beech,

and birch, excepted.

Mr Monteath advises a naturalization of young plants, after they are

got from nurseries, in a soil and climate similar to that which they

are ultimately to occupy. We see no necessity for this. All that is

required in a young plant, is, that it be of good variety, of firm

fibre, in a healthy growing state; with a stout stem, in proportion to

the height, {142} with numerous side branches, and with a root rather

large in comparison to the part above ground.

Our author’s mode of preparation of turfy peat-moss soils for planting

we think good, but conveniently applicable in heathy moss ground, only

with the assistance of the late Mr Finlayson’s ingenious device of

the self-clearing plough. At every seven feet of breadth, Mr Monteath

excavates a deep rut, by means of a plough with three coulters and

two mould-boards,—two of the coulters cutting, each, a side of the

rut, the other dividing it in the middle, and the double mould-board

turning out a furrow to each side. He passes this plough twice along

in forming the rut, each time turning out from four to six inches in

depth, so that the whole depth of the rut is about ten inches. These

minor drains communicate with larger ones dug by the spade across the

field. The thrown up slices are then cut into lengths of eighteen

inches, and carefully dried, by turning and by piling a few together,

as openly as possible, that the wind may blow through. A small pile,

about six in number, is then burnt upon the intended site of each tree,

if necessary, aided in the combustion by furze or other fuel; taking

care, by proper regulation of the quantity of fuel, or otherwise, to

prevent the combustion from proceeding too {143} far, and the ashes

from becoming white and light, as in this case a considerable part

of their virtues is dissipated. This ploughing, drying, and burning,

being performed as early in the summer as the weather will permit,

the earth under the ashes is immediately dug over, from two to four

feet in breadth, and mixed with the ashes, and the following spring

the planting is performed. In situations where Mr Monteath’s plough

could not be worked to advantage, these minor drains may be formed by

the spade; and in heathy peat soils, not requiring drains, the burning

of the heathy turfs on the site of the plants might be efficacious in

correcting the tannin, and in reducing and enriching the soil within

the immediate reach of the young plant, which would thus acquire

strength to subdue the more distant part, and gradually reduce and form

the whole into soil capable of affording healthy nourishment.

We also approve of the plan mentioned by Mr Monteath, for covering

with timber, rocks or stony ground, so bare of soil as not to admit of

planting, by means of placing seeds in the crevices, or on the shelves

of the rock, and scraping together a little mould to cover them; or,

when practicable, placing the seeds in the middle of the mould. Here,

however, we think he errs, in recommending the {144} cutting down

of the young resulting shoot, year after year, that the plant may

acquire long roots, extended down the crevices, to give the future

stem stability and sufficient foraging. We would never cut down but

when the plant appeared stunted, and not then in succession, nearer

than three or four years from the last cutting. Those who possess

rocky precipices, so steep or inaccessible that the above method

of our author could not be practised with conveniency, may cause a

quantity of the cheapest seeds of trees be sown down over the top of

the crags during the winter: we would prefer the end of January, as the

mouldering effects of the frost and the rains would cover numbers of

these, so as they would come to vegetate.

Mr Monteath advises, in rearing oak-forest or copse, to put in only

about thirty plants per acre, and by layers from these to cover the

interstices. In order to recommend this practice, he states the

celerity with which these could be extended, layer beyond layer, making

steps, every second season, of eight or nine feet, by relaying the

last layer’s shoots, and he affirms, that a forest could be sooner,

and more economically raised by this means, than by planting the whole

at first. This is sufficiently imaginative. He seems not to be aware

of the fact, that life is {145} very languid, and growth slow, in any

branch horizontally extended, especially when upright stems from the

same root are suffered to remain. He also expects the layer-roots to

become strong and capable to forage for large trees. That they will,

in the oak, ever become so, we think very improbable. Examination

of the roots which proceed from oak-layers would place this beyond

dispute; if they are, as we presume, fibrous and slender, similar to

those produced by apple-layers, no tree or bush of any great size will

result. Large trees, generally, cannot be procured by layers, but only

in those semiaquatic kinds which grow readily by slips. Whether it

may be advantageous to fill up the vacancies of copse by layers, in

preference to seed-plants, experience only can determine. The bark of

trees or bushes raised by layers or cuttings is generally thicker than

that of those raised from seed:—this might balance some deficiency of

the growth in the case of oak-coppice.

Our author advises the cutting off the upper part of spruce-trees on

the outside of plantations, in order that their lower branches may

extend the more, and remain vigorous,—thence affording more adequate

shelter to the within plantation. Perhaps it is quite unnecessary to

guard any person from practising this piece of folly. On the outside

of woods, spruce-firs {146} will retain the branches in vigour,

sufficiently low for all the purposes of shelter: nothing could be more

unseemly than the decapitated trees; and in a few years most of them

would become rotted in the stem, die, and fall down.

From observing, on the western side of Scotland, thriving plantations

exposed to south-west winds and sea-spray, and also to north-east

winds and sea-spray, in woods extending along the western side of

the salt lochs in Argyllshire, our author predicts, that, under his

panacea of repeated cutting down, trees would grow luxuriantly in

exposed situations on the north-eastern margin of our island. We do not

desire to see Mr Monteath’s sanguine hope turned to disappointment,

which a trial would certainly effect. There is something peculiarly

hard and cutting in our _vernal_ north-eastern breeze fresh from

ocean, which withers up the tender spreading leaves of every plant

raised from the ground, and placed in its immediate draught. This is

occasioned as well by a cold moist, as by a cold dry wind, the new

vegetable structure in the developing process, when the tissues of

tubes and cells are only in the state of pulp, and all the molecular

germs floating into figure, under the direction of vital and chemical

impulses and attractions, being very susceptible {147} of derangement.

We attribute this effect on vegetables principally to the coldness and

saline matter. The depressing effect on the spirits or vital energy of

man, occasioned by the eastern breeze, does not appear to be dependent

on the same cause. The great rivers, the Rhine, the Weser, the Elbe,

independent of the English rivers, throw a great quantity of decaying

vegetable matter into the lower part of the German sea, which, being

there only a shallow muddy gulf, may thence have its waters so far

contaminated as to throw off pernicious exhalations. Or, what is much

more probable, the eastern breeze, sweeping along the swamps (at this

time in high evaporation, of malaria) which extend from Holland upward,

and along the whole southern shore of the Baltic, and thence eastward

nobody knows how far, must bear these exhalations, uncorrected, over

the narrow sea which intervenes between these flats and our shores.

It is even likely that a slight diffusion of saline matter from this

gulf, instead of correcting, may have the opposite effect, as a small

quantity of salt tends to promote putrefaction. It is evident that this

miasma-atmosphere, borne across the German sea, is not pernicious to

vegetables; as, when the breeze is not too cold, or too violent, they

progress rapidly in growth, {148} and acquire a deep green colour:

and, on the north-eastern Scotch coast, where timber suffers most, the

breeze has little of that depressive influence on man, although it

may derange his respiratory and transpiratory organs; while down on

the shores of Suffolk and Essex, where the malaria of the breeze is

greatest to man, the exposed trees receive less injury. Yet something

may depend upon the electric state of this air, or upon the greater

pressure of the atmosphere, which, we believe, are connected. On the

exposed east coast, when it is desired to grow timber, we must estimate

the most enduring kind of tree, perhaps sycamore plane, and place it to

seaward, covering it as much as possible by wall, and planting other

kinds under its lee. We have noticed several instances where timber

throve well, without shelter, close by the sea, on our north-east

coast, which we attributed to a diminished draught of the eastern

breeze, owing to the configuration of the adjacent higher country.

Mr Monteath ascribes the sickliness and decay which, in many places,

is perceptible in the timber of narrow belts, to the want of shelter,

and recommends to form belts wider. There is some truth in this, and

the advice is good, although he does not seem to be aware of the

whole cause of the evil. {149} Trees in single rows thrive latterly

much better than in narrow belts, because, from the planting, they

are habituated to open situation, and acquire roots, branches, and

stem, suited to this: whereas trees in narrow belts, from being in a

thicket while young, acquire great length of stem, and roots and tops

unproportionably small; and, when thinned out, and from the narrowness

of the belt, exposed nearly as much, as, though in single row, they

become sickly, from delicacy of constitution unsuited to this exposure,

and from deficiency of roots to draw moisture commensurate to the

increased evaporation. To obviate this evil, resulting from narrow

belts, timely thinning, so as to retain numerous side-branches downward

to the ground, of course, should be adopted. In a drier climate, or in

high and exposed situation, continued forest will have great effect in

promoting the luxuriance and health of timber; but in the southern part

of Scotland, there are few situations, keeping away from high elevation

and the eastern coast, where any of our common trees would prosper in

forest, which would not grow pretty well singly, provided the plant be

allowed from the first to accommodate its figure to the situation.

Mr Monteath’s system of pruning severely while {150} the trees are

young, we think very prejudicial; and his restricting pruning to trees

under 15 or 20 feet in height, equally erroneous. About 15 years ago,

we selected a number of young trees several years planted, and low

and bushy, in an open situation. We treated one half of these in a

manner similar to what our author inculcates, pruning away most of

the lower branches, and also any irregular top ones: and the other

portion, though very bushy, we left to nature’s own discretion, merely

correcting several which threw up more than one leader. The result

has been, that those much pruned up have required constant attention

to the top and repeated pruning, they continuing to break forth into

irregular branches and numerous leaders, and thence have sustained

considerable loss of growth; while those let alone, after hanging

several years in bush fashion, of their own accord have thrown up fine

leaders, which now form beautiful, upright stems, with sufficiency of

regular lateral branches or feeders, requiring little or no attention;

while the original bush at the ground, from the size and overshadowing

of the superior tree, appears now so diminutive as to be unworthy of

notice. We do not mean to inculcate that pruning is superfluous; on the

contrary, when judiciously executed, under regulation of the purpose

for which the {151} particular kind of timber may be required, it is

highly useful: but the cutting off and diminishing the number of lower

feeders, thence deterring the growth of the tree, and encouraging the

superior feeders to push up as leaders; or to increase in size so as to

render their removal, should it be necessary, dangerous to the health

of the tree, and the upper part of the stem useless from large knots

(a practice which in nine cases out of ten is followed), cannot be

sufficiently reprobated. _In pruning, every means should be taken to

increase the number of feeders_, in order that none of them may become

too large; and no healthy regular feeder should be lopped off till the

tree has reached the required height of stem, and a sufficient top

above this for the purpose of growth; at which time the feeders upon

the stem, as far up as this necessary height, may be removed[36].