84 (1907), as containing something like 9000 cubic feet per acre, which at 4d. per foot works out at £150 per acre. Mr. Gillanders informs me that the soil is fine fresh sand, the elevation 550 feet, and the aspect north-east.
Some of the best foresters consider it an excellent nurse for oak, but beech is now usually preferred for this purpose, on any soil where the latter will thrive.
From 70 to 100years, or in the Highlands 120 to 150 years, is about the age at which the tree is usually mature for felling; as, when younger than this, the timber is comparatively soft and inferior, though after creosoting it may be utilised for many purposes where strength is not important. Where pit-props are saleable, it is more profitable to cut the crop as soon as large enough for that purpose.
Propagation
No coniferous tree is more easy to raise from seed, or easier to transplant. In Scotland the cones are usually gathered in autumn and the seeds extracted by kiln drying when required for sowing; but they are better left on the trees till spring, and the seeds may then be easily extracted by damping the cones and exposing them to the sun till they open. The seeds will keep good for several years, and if not wanted to sow at once, are better extracted in the summer after they are ripe and kept until the following March, when they will germinate as readily as, and perhaps produce stronger plants than, those extracted by artificial heat in winter and sown the next spring.
The best nursery practice is to sow them broadcast on slightly raised beds of sandy soil about three feet wide, and cover with about half an inch of fine earth, some of which may be raked off just before they begin to germinate, leaving a fresh surface uncaked by the rain and sun.
If sown too thickly, the plants will be drawn up closely, and will not remain two years in the seed-bed without becoming crowded. Some people advise transplanting at one year old, but in my experience two years is better, and, if carefully handled, the percentage of loss caused by transplanting is very small.
If the plants are to be put out on heath or sandy land, the stronger ones may be permanently planted out from the seed-bed; but in all soils which are grassy and weedy, it is better to keep them one or two years in nursery lines, which should be about 1 to 1½ feet apart, and the plants 3 to 6 inches apart in the rows, according to whether they are intended to remain one or two years in lines.
It is rarely desirable or necessary to allow them to remain more than four years in the nursery; but if plants larger than 1½ to 2 feet are required for special purposes, they must be transplanted when four years old and put in rows about one foot apart and two feet apart in the rows.
The best time for planting out large trees is in the autumn, as soon as the terminal buds become hard; but small plants should not be transplanted till after the period of severe frost has passed, or they will in most soils be lifted by frost. If, however, it is necessary to do so, stones should be put round the collar of the tree, not only to keep them fast in the ground, but also to keep out the drought during
