Of the culture of Plantations; Soil; Pruning; Thinning; remedies for accidental injuries, and the natural diseases of Forest-Trees. Of the Of the progressive increase of size or produce of Wood in different species of Forest-Trees. Of the mode of valuing Plantations-present value- prospective value of certain individual Trees, which have attained to great maturity. Of the products of Plantations, and of the terms used PLANTING. THE subject of planting may, with propriety, be divided into three parts: useful or forest-tree planting, ornamental or garden planting, and orchard or fruit-tree planting. Each of these divisions of the subject, from its importance and interest, in a national point of view, as well as to individuals, seems to demand a distinct treatise. The first of these, forest-tree planting, is proposed for the subject of the following pages; and the details of the theory and practice of the art discussed under the following heads: I. Of some of the advantages resulting from judicious planting. II. Of the structure of trees; and of the natural agents which influence and govern the growth of the plant from the period of germination to its full maturity. Of the seeds of forest-trees; and of the processes of vegetation. III. Of the different modes of rearing forest-trees:-by sowing the seeds on the spot where they are to remain for timber; of sowing the seeds on nursery beds, and afterwards transplanting the young plants to their timber sites; by preserving and training proper shoots or suckers, produced by coppice roots or stools. Comparative advantages and disadvantages of these different modes. Of simple and of mixed plantations. IV. Of the soils and sites most profitably employed in the growth of timber. Intimate nature of the different soils peculiarly adapted for the growth of particular species of forest trees. Of V. Of the most approved modes of preparing different soils for the reception of the plants: fencing, draining, ploughing, trenching. the formation of rides or carriage-ways into the interior of plantations. Of the best mode of covering these with herbage. VI. Of the culture of plantations: soil, pruning, thinning. Remedies for accidental injuries, and natural diseases of forest-trees. Seasons for felling trees. Of the tannin in the bark of different species of trees. VII. Of the progressive increase of the size or produce of wood in different species of trees. Of the mode of valuing plantations: present value; prospective value. Of the products of plantations. Of some individual trees which have attained to great perfection. Of the terms used to denote certain products of plantations. VIII. An enumeration of the different species: those of large growth, those of under growth for copse wood, ornament, or shelter. The generic botanical characters. Their natural soils; mode of propagation; and the uses to which their timber is more generally applied. B CHAPTER I. Of some of the Advantages resulting from judicious Planting. JUDICIOUS planting and the skilful culture of plantations combine national and private interests in an eminent degree; for, besides the real or intrinsic value of the timber or ostensible crop, with other produce of woods, available for the arts and comforts of life, judicious forest-tree planting improves the general climate of the neighbourhood, the staple of the soil, as regards the gradual accumulation of vegetable matter, affords shelter to live stock, promotes the growth of pasture and of corn crops, beautifies the landscape, and thus greatly and permanently increases the value of the fee simple of the estate and adjoining lands. If we turn to those soils emphatically termed wastes-exposed, elevated lands, moors, bogs, and sterile sands-composing so large a portion of the British empire, and naturally clothed by the lowest and least valuable products of the vegetable kingdom, the inferior grasses, mosses, rushes, sedges, ferns, and heaths-we find that upon them the more valuable domestic animals cannot exist. If we consider the reason why they are so barren, waste, and unproductive, when compared with other lands not more favoured by nature, and under similar circumstances of latitude and elevation, the cause will, in many instances, be found in the want of the shelter and shade of trees, and of the ameliorating influence which plantations exercise on ungenial local climates. The essential, permanent pasture grasses cannot be established on naked exposed situations; but when assisted by the shelter of forest-trees they become permanent and productive. Plantations supply us with with fuel, with materials for fencing, enclosing, building; corn crops, soiling plants, and root crops are obtained in succession under their genial protection. Many thousands of acres now unprofitable to the owners and to the community, might, by judicious planting, be reclaimed, and rendered highly productive; and it may be safely affirmed, that there is hardly a spot of waste land in the kingdom so barren, which by the exercise of skill in planting, and selection of proper species of forest-trees adapted to the soil and exposure, might not be covered with profitable plantations. Numerous instances might be cited from different parts of the kingdom where exposed and sterile lands have, by planting, been made capable of producing valuable arable crops and the best pasture grasses, and of rearing and fattening stock of improved breeds. This, in effect, is adding to the territorial extent of a country, to its wealth and strength, by conquest over the natural defects of local climate, soil, and exposure. CHAPTER II. Of the Structure of Trees, and of the Natural Agents which influence and govern the growth of the Plants, from the period of Germination until the Trees arrive at full maturity. PLANTS being living organized bodies, a just knowledge of the functions of their vital organs, and of the principal natural agents which influence their progress of growth to maturity, will be found a useful, if not an indispensable assistant to guide the practical planter in rearing trees in the most judicious and successful manner. This part of the subject properly belongs to vegetable physiology; and as the limits of an essay do not allow of entering into minute details, we shall here only notice those leading features of the structure of trees, and those functions of their vital organs, which more immediately influence the practical operations of the planter. In considering the progress of vegetable life, physiologists have distinguished six principal parts of a tree: the root, the stem, the branches, the leaves, the flowers, and the fruit or seed. The varieties of the root of forest-trees are characterised by the names of tap root, fibrous root, and creeping root, these may be considered rather as indicating particular states of the same organ at different stages of growth than as permanent or specific distinctions *. The tap root is that which first appears on the vegetation of a healthy seed, and penetrates perpendicularly into the soil. From it issue numerous minute radicles; and as the proper leaves are developed, lateral roots or fibres are formed and sent out from the sides of the tap root, particularly at the point of junction situated between the radicle and stem. As the plant advances in age the distinction of the tap root is lost, either by decay or by its taking a horizontal direction in common with the general mass of roots, and from which in a few years it is not to be distinguished. Other leading roots are frequently formed from the first delicate lateral fibres, which pervade the tap root, and sometimes from its extremity when it happens to divide into parts, which always takes place when the extremity comes in contact with a richer or more genial soil, or, on the contrary extreme when it meets with obstructions in its first or early descent from whatever cause, rocks, gravel, &c., or by injury from insects: if the tap root be taken from the seed leaves before the plumula appears, or before the development of the proper leaves, the young seedling dies; and, again, should the tap root be deprived of the seed leaves before the production and expansion of the proper leaves, no farther reproduction or growth takes place. The uses of the tap root, it will readily be perceived from these facts, are of great importance to the plant in its first stages of growth, and may be compared to the equally essential and important uses of the seminal leaves, at the same period; but its subsequent destruction does not, as it has been supposed, influence injuriously the ultimate produce or value of the tree. Two or any equal number of trees, for instance, of the same age, of the like constitution, and reared on a soil of the same nature, the one from seed on the spot, the other being transplanted from a nursery bed, without, or with a portion only of its tap-root, will give results which prove that trees, when transplanted at a certain age and size, and in all other respects of culture under the same circumstances, produce timber in quantity and in quality equal, if not superior to untransplanted seedlings. Whether, therefore, to raise forest-trees from seed on the spot where they are to In practical planting, as well as in practical botany, the root is considered to be that part of a plant which is hid underground, and the varieties of it are characterized according to the shape and mode of growth, as bulbous, tuberous, fibrous, or creeping; these again are susceptible of subdivision as they vary from the type. In physiology, however, the fibres or radicles are alone recognised as the roots, as it is they only which take up the food of the plant supplied by the soil. The tuber of the turnip, potato, &c. and the bulb of the hyacinth, &c. are properly reservoirs in which to deposit the food of the plant until wanted in season for the production of leaves, flowers, and fruit, or seed. Indeed, bulbs and tubers may be considered the plant itself in certain stages of its progress to maturity. A deciduous forest-tree in winter, when without its leaves, flowers, and seed, may be compared to a bulb or tuber, when destitute at the same time of these parts of a plant. Roots, in general, are also distinguished in practice as to duration, being annual, biennial, and perennial. produce timber, or in nursery beds, and afterwards transplant them, is a question of mere expediency. Where seeds of the kinds of forest-trees desired can be had at little cost; where the soil is friable, is in a perfectly clean state, and consequently adapted to the plough culture; where such animals as are destructive of seeds and young plants, as mice, rooks, and game, particularly hares and rabbits, are not likely to be greatly destructive; and where the cost of labour is not comparatively high, then sowing the seeds of forest trees on their timber sites, may be the best practice and be adopted with success. But where, on the contrary, these obstructions exist or are probable, transplanting select healthy trees from nursery beds, though the plants be deprived of their tap roots, will be found more economical in the first outlay, and in the subsequent cost of culture; and the most profitable, as affording a quicker return of profit in prunings and thinnings, and will produce timber in a less number of years from the time of occupying the land for that purpose. The fibrous root is that which is most common to forest-trees. It consists of numerous divisions or bundles of fibres, furnished with minute spongeols, and nearly representing the divisions or ramifications of the large and smaller branches and buds of the tree. The variety of creeping root is chiefly confined to those trees which have the roots running horizontally, as in some species of poplar, elm, &c. The organization of the root is similar to that of the stem and branches, from the pith which forms the centre of the body to the epidermis which covers the bark. Each part may be traced in uninterrupted continuation, from the minutest radicle of the root to the extremity of the smallest branch or bud of a tree. When a root of whatever kind is divided, its horizontal section exhibits three distinct parts, the pith, the wood, and the bark; and a transverse section of the trunk of the tree, or of a branch, exhibits exactly the same parts. The pith forms the central circle of a root, stem, or branch: it is a cellular membraneous body of a silvery white colour. As the tree or root advances in age and the timber is perfected, the pith gradually loses its original spongy texture, the cells of which it is composed becoming more and more compressed until all appearance of it is lost in the wood, excepting that the concentric circle which it occupied appears whiter than the other annual layers. But although the pith thus disappears in the old, it still continues in progress with the young wood of the root, stem, or branches; and the periodical fibres or radicles of the former, and the buds or embryo branches of the latter, will on examination be found to originate from it. When a branch is pruned off close to a stem wherein, from age, the pith has disappeared for some distance above and altogether from below the origin of the amputated branch, no reproduction of shoots takes place in whatever season the pruning may be performed, but should a portion of the branch be left to the stem, from that buds and shoots will spring. It also happens that when a branch is pruned off close to a young healthy stem containing perfect and active pith, before or shortly after the completion of the midsummer growth, which usually takes place before the end of July, no reproduction of shoots follows the operation, but the efforts of the vital functions of the plant appear to be wholly directed to cover the wound with fresh bark. Should the pruning, however, be performed in spring before or shortly after the expansion of the leaves, or after their fall in autumn, a reproduction of buds and shoots ensues, and a slower progress in the formation of new bark is apparent. |