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hereafter shew) the interspaces of an infant Wood may, for several years after fowing, be ftill cultivated to advantage, the preference, we conceive, is evidently, and beyond all difpute, on the fide of fowing.

WITH respect to the arrangement of Wood Plants, the preference to be given to the row, or the random culture, refts in fome measure upon the nature and fituation of the land to be stocked with plants. Against steep hangs, where the plow cannot be conveniently used in cleaning and cultivating the interspaces, during the infancy of the Wood, either method may be adopted; and if plants are to be put in, the quincunx manner will be found

rience, though he does not particularize it." When Oak trees are cultivated with a view to profit, acorns fhould be fown, where the trees are defigned to grow; for those which are tranfplanted will never arrive to the fize of thofe which ftand where they are fown, nor will they laft near fo long. For in fome places where these high trees have been transplanted, with the greatest care, they have grown very fast for feveral years after, yet are now decaying, when those which remain in the places where they came up from the acorns, are ftill very thriving, and have not the leaft fign of decay. Therefore, whoever defigns to cultivate thefe trees for timber, should never think of transplanting them, but fow the acorns on the fame ground where they are to grow; for timber of all those trees which are transplanted is not near so valuable as that of the trees from acorns." (Art. QUERCUS.)

preferable

preferable to any.

But in more level fituations, we cannot allow any liberty of choice: the drill manner is undoubtedly the most eligible; and, with this method of raifing a Wood, we begin to give our directions.

LAYING OUT LANDS FOR WOODS. But before we enter upon the immediate fubject, it will be proper to premise, that, previous to the commencement of any undertaking of this nature, it would be advifeable that the fpot or fpots intended to be converted into Woodland, fhould be determined upon, the quantity of land afcertained,and the whole (whether it be entire or in detached parts, and whether it be ten acres or a hundred) divided into annual fowings.

-

THE exact number of thefe fowings should be regulated by the ufes for which the Underwood is intended. Thus, if, as in Surrey, stakes, edders, and hoops are faleable, the fuite ought to confift of eight or ten fowings; or if, as in Kent, hop poles are in demand, fourteen or fifteen fowings will be required; and if, as in Yorkshire, rails be wanted, or, as in Gloucefterfnire, cordwood be most marketable, eighteen or twenty fowings will be neceffary, to produce a regular fucceffion of annual falls.

MANY

MANY advantages accrue from thus parcelling out the land into fowings: the business, by being divided, will be rendered lefs burdenfome; a certain proportion being every year to be done, a regular fet of hands will, in proper season, be employed; and, by beginning upon a small scale, the errors of the first year will be corrected in the practice of the fecond, and those of the fecond in that of the third. The produce of the intervals will fall into regular. courfe; and, when the whole is completed, the falls will follow each other in regular fucceffion.

If it be found convenient to haften the bufinefs, two or three divifions may be fown in one year, the feparate falls being marked by the first cutting. This, though by no means equal to regular fowings, correfponding to the intended falls, is much better than hurrying over the whole business at once a piece of raflinefs, which no man, who works upon an extenfive fcale, fhould be guilty of.

THE principal objections to raifing Woodlands, in this progreffive manner, is the extra trouble in fencing. However, if the fowings lie detached: from each other, the objection falls; if, on the contrary, they lie together, or in plots, let the entire plot be inclofed at once; and, if it contain a Aumber of fowings, fome fubdivifions will be ne

ceffary,

ceffary, and the annual fowings of thefe fubdivifions may be fenced off with hurdles, or other temporary contrivance. If the adjoining land to be fown be kept under the plow, little temporary fencing will be wanted.

IT may be further neceffary, before we enter upon the business of fowing, to give fome direc. tions as to FENCING; for, unless this be done effectually, that will be labour lost.

IN railing a Wood, from feeds, it is not only neceffary to fence against cattle and fheep, but against hares alfo, especially if they be numerous. Nothing less than a clofe fence is adequate to this purpose. Where the foil will admit of it, a ditch, bank, and dwarf paling, may be raised, in the manner already defcribed, under the article FENCES; except that, instead of a stake-and-edder hedge, a clofe paling fhould be fet upon the bank, in the following manner.

BEFORE the bank be finished, the posts, about five feet long, fhould be put down, their lower ends being first charred (fuperficially burnt), to prevent their decaying. One rail is fufficient. To this the upper ends of the pales are nailed, their lower ends having been previously driven into the crown of the bank. The pales fhould be about three feet

long,

long, and ought to be of Oak, or the bottom parts will foon decay.

THE fence is the ftronger, and more effectual, if the ditch be made on the outer fide of it, and the paling fet so as to lean outwards; but the quick ftands a much better chance of being reared, on the inner fide of the paling, next to the feedling plants: therefore, the most prudent method of making a fence of this kind, is to make the ditch on the outside, without an off-fet, leaning the paling over it, and planting the quick at the foot of the bank, on the inner fide: it then becomes, what it ought always to be confidered,-a part of the Nursery.

THIS, however, is an expenfive fence, and is better fuited to a fmall than a large fcale; and if, inftead of the dwarf paling, a clofe rough ftakeand-edder hedge be fet upon the bank, it will (provided it be well made and carefully attended to from time to time, and the muces, if any be made, ftopt with rough bushes, and stakes driven through them), continue to be effectual, against bares, for a confiderable time. Against rabbits, nothing less than death is effectual.

At length we come to treat particularly of the method of raising a Wood, upon land fufficiently

found,

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