ON

SOWING THE SEEDS

OF

FOREST TREES;

FROM AN ESSAY ON THE SUBJECT

By Mr JOSEPH UDNEY, Moffat; written in 1819.

I. Enclosing. This should be done by one or other of the following Fences. 1st, A double stonedike, height with its coping 6 feet. 2d, A sunk fence faced up with stone 5 feet high, with a hedge along the top of the bank. 3d, A ditch and hedge; the ditch to be 6 feet wide at the surface, 3 feet deep, and 1 foot wide at the bottom; the earth from the ditch to be used in making up the bank above the thorns, the line of which is to face the ditch, and a dead hedge to be laid along the top of the bank, to the height of 2 feet.

II. The kinds of seed to be sown.-These are as follows:

The reason for sowing this quantity of 3 lb. 8 oz. to the Scotch acre, is to ensure an abundant crop, after allowing for a considerable proportion which may not grow, or be afterwards destroyed by birds and vermin. If it were not for this, one-third of the quantity might be sufficient. The Mountain-ash or Roan, being very ornamental and extremely hardy, a portion of the seeds of this tree may be occasionally introduced.

III. Soils upon which these seeds may be expected to answer. These are, 1st, All light and dry land, whatever may be the nature of the soil or surface. 2d, All land incumbent on stones and gravel. 3d, Dry heaths, the heath to be burnt the year before the land is sown. 4th, All soils that produce whins and broom, the whins and broom to

be dug out. 5th, All dry knolls, however deep the soil may be, if the surface be tender. 6th, Land poached by cattle, although damp, but without water standing thereon. 7th, Mosses, whether deep or shallow, if dry. Some distinction, however, is to be made between the seeds, proper for this description of land, and the others; and it is only four of the kinds before mentioned, which Mr Udney recommends for being sown on mosses, viz. The seeds of common fir, spruce fir, larch, and birch, in the proportions there specified. The seeds of the oak and beech, when these also are to be used, are to be planted by the dibble, and not sown by the hand, as will be afterwards noticed.

IV. Mode of Sowing.-All the seeds must be mixed together in a sowing sheet, and the sower must only use the thumb and two fore fingers in taking hold of the seed, which he must scatter very sparingly. If each seed could be placed at half a foot distance from another, that would be sufficient. It will be necessary, in order to direct the sower, to set up two lines of poles, at three yards distance from one another, that being space enough to be covered by one cast of his hand. When one length gone over in this way, one of the lines of the poles is removed, and set up again at the same distance, on the other side of that which is still left standing, and so on over the whole space to be sown. As some of the seeds are heavier than others, and would fall to the bottom of the heap in the sheet, care must

is

be taken to stir them from time to time, so as to keep them mixed as equally as possible, and a calm day must be chosen for sowing them, that they may fall regularly.

With regard to the dibbling of the acorns and beech-mast, the planter must be provided with poles as before, and a dibble shod with plate-iron three inches up from the point, with an apron to hold the acorns. He then begins upon the line of the poles, and makes a hole with the dibble, into which he drops two acorns, and the same at every four steps forward upon this line. When he has got to the end of the field in this manner, the poles are again set up at four steps distance, and he goes on to dibble, and drops the seeds upon the new line as before. In this In this way the seeds are placed at 12 feet distance from one another; but if, any other distance be preferred, it is easy to mark it off and deposite the seeds in the same manner. Two seeds are to be put into each hole, for the same reason that the seeds sown by hand are recommended to be in greater quantity than would be necessary to produce a full crop, namely, as a security against a partial failure.

V. Covering the Seeds.-This is to be done by means of a thorn harrow, loaded with a piece of wood, and the land is to be twice gone over in the same manner as in harrowing a corn-field. A thorn harrow is thought to be better than any other, as it shakes down all the seeds from the tops of the grass, thus placing them out of the reach of birds. The

it

may

harrow on dry land may be drawn by a horse, but on moss where a horse could not so well be employed, be dragged by one or two men. In the case of moss, it will be necessary to draw a ditch round the field, and to intersect it with small drains whereever they are necessary.

VI. Protection from Vermin.-The rat, and the water and land mouse, not only destroy the seeds, but they sometines peel off the bark of young trees, which is thought to be the reason of so many firs dying away after a few years growth. These vermin may be destroyed by a trap formed of a square log of wood, with three small holes on one side to admit the land mice, and three larger on the other for the water mice; cach hole having a spring with a piece of cheese, or some other bait fixed within it. A careful person should go through the field twice or thrice a week to examine the traps, and by this means, it is thought that the loss occasioned by the depredations of these vermin might be much prevented. Young tree plants, as well as hedges, are also injured by insects, which in some seasons have occasioned great damage in different parts of Scotland; but Mr Udney does not suggest any mode of protection from this enemy; nor against the depredations of hares, which are also very extensive.

The author of the Essay recommends that particular attention should be paid to the goodness of the seeds used, which, in the case of proprietors of wood-lands, ought to be collected by the proprietor's