USEFUL AND ORNAMENTAL PLANTING.

THIS is a very complete and well-digested work, on a subject of great practical utility. We have here a full and yet compact ex- position of all that relates to that very important object on theface of the globe, a tree. The natural history of trees, the nature of soils, the modes of planting and cultivation, the profits of thus occu- pying land under different circumstances, besides anecdotes of trees, and the art of arranging them in picturesque forms, so as to beautify tracts of ground, and what is more, greatly improve the local climate, are treated of. It is only of late that the example of EVELYN has been followed, and that this subject has occupied the attention not of mere bailiffs and stewards, but of powerful noblemen, who have changed the face of whole districts, and more especially of men of knowledge and refined taste. The subject was written upon by SIT WALTER SCOTT himself: the names of STEWART and KNIGHT also do honour to it : and we think much of the name of WITHERS, a stout Norfolk gentleman, who has done more by his experiments and writings to circulate sound notions on planting, than perhaps any other individual. The name of COBBETT, moreover, is not to be despised. Of so various a work as the present, abounding as it does in details of every description, it is difficult to quote such a specimen as will give an adequate idea of the book: the following extract, however, consists of facts of popular interest— The high perfection to which some individual trees of the different species have attained, is an object of much interest to the profitable planter of forest- trees as well as to all ; for who does not derive pleasure of thehighest order from the contemplation of woodland scenery? The limits of these pages admit but of a few short notices on this point. The oak which was felled in April 1791, in the park of Sir John Rushout, Bart., at Northwich, in Worcestershire, and judged to be about three hundred years old, and perfectly sound and fine timber, measured In circumference, or girt, as five feet from the ground

21 Smallest girt 18 Length to the branches 30 Solid contents of the body ... 634 Estimated timber in the arms 200 Cubic feet of timber 834

The celebrated Fairlop oak, in Hainault Forest, Essex, is stated to have, mea- sured, at three feet from the ground, about thirty-six feet in circumference, asset the extremities of the branches gave a circle of three hundred feet. In Welbeck Park an oak is mentioned as one hundred and eleven feet in height, seventy feet up to the branches, and the circumference at the bottom.twenty-

one feet.

In Holt Forest, near Farnham, an oak in 1259 girted thirty-four feet at seven feet from the ground ; in 1778, or in nineteen years, it had insreased, only half

an inch.

At Oakley, in Bedfordshire, the seat of the Marquis of Taviiitockj there is an oak, now in perfect health, which contains about five hundzed.and.twenty-seven cubic feet of timber, and the branches overspread a space of five_theusaud tight

hundred and fifty superficial feet of groan&

Feet.

Mr. Rookes, in his account of the oaks of Welbeek, mentions that an oak cut down in Birchlaiul, had the letters I. R. more than a foot within the tree, and about a foot from the centre. It was supposed to be two hundred and ninety- two years old. It was perfectly sound, and measured about twelve feet in cir- cumference.

The oaks in Woburn Park have already been alluded to as being trees of re- markably fine growth. There is one situated in the park, to the east of the Abbey, which measures ninety feet in height, the main stem of which is fifty feet, and head above the forks forty feet. This tree contains four hundred and ninety-two cubic feet of timber. The circumference at four feet from the ground is fifteen feet two inches.

There is another fine oak, in perfect health, which contains six hundred and sixty-six cubic feet of timber, on the west of the Abbey. The circumference near the ground is thirty feet, and the height to the boughs sixty-six feet. Four of these oaks measure two thousaud and sixty-eight cubic feet of timber, after deducting one-eighth, the allowance for the bark. The variety of oak in this park is chiefly of that called the foot-stalked oak, Quercus robur peduncnlata. The elm may be placed next to the oak for utility and ornament. The wych elm is the most hardy. There is one mentioned by Evelyn in Sir Walter Bagot's Park, in Staffordshire, which measured forty yards in length, and at the stool seventeen feet in diameter. The weight was estimated at ninety-seven tons. The chestnut (Castanet% vesca) may dispute the order of precedence with the elm but that it is less hardy, and requires a milder climate, and more genial soil. On the banks of the Tauiar, in Cornwall, there are some of the finest spe- cimens of this tree. A very remarkable tree of this kind in England is at Tort- worth, in Gloucestershire. A figure of it is given in the Gentleman's Maga- zine for 1766, p. 321. The age of this tree is supposed to be upwards of one thousand years. In 1791, it measured forty-four feet four inches in circumfer- ence. The soil in which it grows is described as being a soft loamy clay. The finest tree on record of the beech appears to be that in Woburn Park, situated on a rising ground south of the Abbey, in a fine grove of that species of tree. The height of the tree at this period is one hundred feet. It has a clear and nearly equally cylindrical stem of the height of fifty feet ; and the top, which is of the most graceful proportion in every respect, occupies fifty feet in height. The solid contents are four hundred feet. The soil in which this remarkable tree grows has already been described at P. 48. • Of the larch (Pinus larix) the finest specimens have been produced in the extensive woods-of the Duke Of Athol, at Dunkeld, in Perthshire. One tree of fifty years of age measured eighty-six feet and a half in height, and contained eighty-two feet of solid wood. nem are instances of the larch attaining to up- wards of one hundred feet in height, and of twelve feet in circumference.

The specimens of the silver fir (Pinus picea) at Blair Adam, before men- tioned, are remarkable for size and symmetry; but the finest specimen, perhaps, in Britain grows in Woburn Park. The height of this tree is one hundred and ten feet, and the circumference at four feet from the ground ten feet six inches; the solid contents or cubic feet of timber contained in it being three hundred and seventy-five feet. The age of the tree is about one hundred and ten years, and the average increase of height has, therefore, been exactly one foot every year, and the periodical produce of timber upwards of three, or nearly three and a half, cubic feet per annum. This appears to be the largest periodical increase of timber, continued for an many years' that is recorded.

Three black Italian poplars, planted by the present Duke of Bedford in 1806, are now of twenty-three years' growth, and measure as follows:—

Feet. Inches. Solid Contents. No. 1. Height.. 31 0 1 60 feet. Circumference or girth 6 7 J

Tho stem at fifteen feet * girt 121 Ditto at sixteen feet above 13}

• ' No. 2. Lost its top in a blast in 1828.

Measures—height 23 0 1 One-fourth girt 161 0

• No.3. Height 26 0

• One fourth girt 0 16 These trees were planted on a light soil, but well prepared by trenching.

A very important point urged by the author, is the annual set- !ting apart of a number of acres from the Royal forests, for plant- ing national timber for national purposes. He shows that the supply would be most seasonable—that the return, if managed in a particular manner, would be highly profitable, and would more- over afford occupation to a large number of unemployed poor. His mode of preparing the land requires seventy-three days work an acre, to labourers at two shillings a day. 45 feet.

46 feet.