A dictionary of modern gardening - University Library

P L A 463 PL A
ailopted ; if clay, the oak ; if rich loam, plant for merely ornamental purposes;
the elm. In moist situations, the akler, and It is because all timber trees consallow,
and willow; and in mountain, tain phospliate of lime in very conand
dry soiled districts, all the hardy siderabic proportions, that crushed
conifera;, the bircli and the ash. Peat, bones are found to be so excellent a
if well drained, wdi bear the Scotch fir; fertilizer for them ; and hence one reaand
the Spanish chestnut will flourisli son, why it has long been a well-known
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on light sheltereil loam. On the poor- fact, that by burying dead animals unest
and lightest soils, if well drained, der trees nearly exhausted for want of
the larch will establish itself. Similar nourishment, those trees will almost
attention must be paid to the soil in invariably be considerably revived, and
send out their shoots with unusual vi-
locating the shrubs. Rhododendrons \
delight in shade and leaf-mould; and gour and how essential the ; presence
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i others have their particular soils, of of phosphate of lime is to their growth,
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which information will be found in other may be judged of from the fact, that
pages, under their appropriate titles. this salt constitutes 45 per cent, of the
Manures. — Trees, like all other ashes of the oak; 35 in those of the
plants, are benefited by being appro- hazel; 16.75 of the poplar; 23 in the
priately manured; their growth is thus hornbeam; 12 per cent, in those of the
accelerated, and contrary to old opin- fir.
ions, it is found that the wood of These chemical examinations natuquickly-growing
trees is more durable,
and more tough than that of trees of
rally support the conclusion to which I
have long come in my own experiments,
the same species which have vegetated that in all plantations of timber trees,
more tardily. Calcareous matter is al- both on the score of profit and of ornaways
required by trees; and my brother, ment, it is in almost all situations de-
Mr. Cuthbert Johnson, has truly stated sirable to assist the growth of the young
that on the poor hungry heath lands, trees
such as those of Norfolk, Surrey, and On a
by a
large
sinall
scale
addition of manure,
this must be chiefly
the north, which contain hardly a trace confined to the use of the earths, either
of carbonate of lime, they find that, by lime, chalk, or marl, according to their
dressing with chalk or marl, land in- respective local value ; and for this
tended for planting, the growth of the purpose a smaller proportion per acre
trees is very materially increased; and of any kind of manure is of much greatmore
recently, as in the forest of Dama- er value than is commonly supposed,
way in Scotland, the planters have I I have usually, under every plant, merefound
the greatest advantage from plac- ly applied a small shovelful of tolerablying
only a handful of lime (about four rotted stable dung, stirring it up with
bushels per acre is sufficient) in the soil
under the plants. By this means the
the mould ; and, as these experiments
were principally made on a poor hungry
young trees, they say, are forced for- gravelly soil, nearly destitute of carbonward
; that is, they are supplied with ate of lime, I have usually added to the
the carbonate of lime at the very period beach plants, instead of the farm-yard
of their growth, when their roots, from manure, a small quantity of chalk,
want of extent and vigour, are least Trenching.— In preparing the land
able to absorb from the soil the portion for plantations, the same chemical exofthis
earth so essential for their healthy amination of the composition well illusgrowth.
And it is precisely such heath tratcs the advantages derived by the
plant, from merely previously stirring
! soils as those to which I have alluded
as being so materially benefited by the soil I ; since it is evident that when
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application of lime, chalk, or marl
the
the constituents of the young trees are
(which also contains chalk), that are contained in it in only very limited profound,
when examined in their natural portions, in such case the more easily
state, to be nearly destitute of carbon- their roots arc enabled to penetrate in
ate of lime.
search of that necessary nourishment,
It is for the same reasons that, in the more rapid will be their growth.
the early state of their growth, timber Previous trenching of the soil also
plantations are benefited so materially conduces to the healthy growth of trees
by being manured with organic matters—a
fact well known to those who
in more ways than one. It renders
them less subject to injury from want