Timber trees and coppices.
The planting of timber trees is an im portant aid to general cultivation, parti cularly in mountainous and moorish situ ations, where they afford shelter both for corn crops and cattle. Wherever planta tions are formed in such situations, the aspect of the sin-rounding land is always improved, and exhibits a richer verdure. When suddenly removed, the contrary effect takes place ; the efforts of human industry are then impaired ; the warmth of the soil is dissipated ; vegetation is pierced and chilled by the unresisted blasts which sweep along its surface ; and the cattle are benumbed and stunted, for want of protection from its fury.
In a fiat and rich country, plantations often operate injuriously ; and lofty hedge rows, containing stately trees, check the free passage of the air and light, prevent the seasonable drying of the ground, and, in a changeful and critical climate, the corn is consequently delayed in its pro gress to maturity, often cannot be gather ed in proper condition, and, sometimes, is completely ruined. These considera tions will generally be sufficient to de cide the question of planting timber trees in particular situations, 1Vhere the prac tice is thought judicious, with a view to the melioration of the soil, the larch, which is the quickest grower, and the most valuable of mill the resinous trees, will he entitled to a preference. • The most barren ground will answer all its demands for nourishment. For oak, bet ter lands are indispensable. Beech trees under the protection of Scotch firs, pre viously planted for their shelter, will lay hold, eventually, even of a soil which pessesses neither clay nor loam, and thrives so rapidly as to require, in a short period, that the firs should be cut down, to afford freer air and ramification.
The use of small plantations of timber sin large estates is very considerable. A vast quantity of posts, spars, and rafters, for buildings of every description on the farm, is perpetually called for in such circumstances, and will thus be fully sup plied on the spot; whereas the want of it is attended with extreme expense and in convenience. Planting should commence
in October, and may be continued till April, excepting during frost. Injuries from cattle must be effectually guarded against in plantations, in their infant stage, which are as easily ruined as fields of corn. The fences, therefore, should be kept in the best possible repair.
With respect to coppices, the caution about cattle is equally necessary. When coppices have attained the age of four teen years, they may, generally speaking, be cut down more profitably than at any other age ; and the most advantageous method, after this, is to sort out the wood for appropriate purposes, whether for fu el, hoops, or hop poles ; which arrange ment will, in almost all cases furnishing such varieties, abundantly compensate for the time taken np in making it. In some situations, as in Sorry for stakes and edders, in Gloucestershire for cord wood, in Yorkshire for railing, these articles yield a considerable advantage; and as they are sure of a market within a small distance, which, with respect to the car riage of so bulky a commodity, is a point of the first consequence, an annual fall of wood applicable to these purposes may be desirable. The ground appropriated for its growth should be divided into that number of sowings or plantations, which will equal the number of years intended for their growth before cutting. The ma nagement will thus be easy as well as profitable, and fall naturally, without agi tation and embarrassme),* into the regu lar business of the year These planta tions may be sown either in October or March. The land being in good order, it should be sown with corn or pulse, appropriate to the season and soil, after which the tree seeds should be put across the land in drills. Acorns and nuts must be dibbled, and the key berries scattered in trenches, drawn by the hoe, at four feet distance. Osiers may often be culti vated to great advantage, yielding a profit in the second, or at least in the third year ; while a coppice requires 15 or 20, and an oak 100 years, to attain to its maturity.